We arrived in Santiago, the Chilean capital on 4th march by plane from Rio. This was just a one night stop as we were flying out of here on the 5th to Auckland. We stayed in a really nice hostel right in the middle of the Bella Boavista area containing all the bars and restaurants. On Sunday 5th we had a wander around the town and went up the cable car overlooking the city early afternoon which was fun Later we were planning to have a wander round the downtown area when we caught an unexpected 'treat'. A huge building in the town centre had caught fire and we were there to see the whole drama unfold. The fire got really intense and part of the huge building collapsed in on itself in the height of the blaze. It must have been pretty hairy for the firefighters who arrived in their droves to put it out and it attracted a huge amount of spectactors not surprisingly. It turned out to be a Ministry of Defence building and the fire made the front pages of all the newspapers next day. We caught a flight that night to fly to New Zealand or so we thought. However, about an hour into the flight the pilot announced engine trouble (a 'vibration'according to him) and we had to turn back to Santiago. We and other passengers suspected the problem was more serious then they let on as we heard strange noises coming from the engine even taxi-ing in the airport and the take off didn't seem very normal as power seemed to be low. Additionally there werel loud noises from the engine on our side during the hours flying. Fortunately we made it back to Santiago OK and were transported to a hotel for the night. As we got in so late it only meant three or so hours of sleep for us before we had to go back top the airport, check in again (which took bloody ages) before we flew off again. It was a pretty hideous flight as we were all so tired and we cursed third world airlines all the way to Auckland!