Hola Santiago, it's time to explore a new continent!!!

So I arrived in Santiago at 11am, jumped on a bus with the English couple I met, and then took about an hour walking up and down the main street with a French guy I met who decided to come to my hostel and see what that was like. At long last we found it! It was all very secure with big gates so there was no chance of people wondering in. It had a cute outdoor seating area with a little bar and a cosy living room with Free WIFI. Yes, I am at last back in a continent that has free wifi everywhere! Frenchy (sorry I should say his name is Antony) decided to stay in the hostel too, so we dumped our stuff and headed out to explore the city. We grabbed a 'walking tour' map and followed that but neither of us were too impressed with the city or the buildings. We stopped for a coffee and attempted to learn some Spanish with Antonys phrase book and then tried out the metro to get home. It was pretty simple and we were able to buy a ticket in Spanish too...unfortunately our metro experience was ruined by a man trying to take Antonys camera from his belt and when he failed in doing this he attempted to get in my handbag...but luckily failed to do this without me noticing too. It just put me a little bit more on edge, and hence I went to bed that evening having a fairly negative opinion about Santiago - but then again, I was tired as we literally had a 24 hour day, so sleep did me good.

In the morning, I met with Antony and then ended up doing a free walking tour around the city with one girl from my hostel . The tour guide was really friendly, she had great English and also had lots of interesting things to point out about the city, the buildings and the politics in the country too. She took us in buildings we would never had gone in alone and showed us some cool places where we could grab a coffee and enjoy some good food. Although it was a 'free' tour, they work on tips so I ended up giving her $4000 pesos, which I think is about £5. It was a 3 hour tour so I didn't think that was too bad really. Antony met up with us for the last part of the walk and then we ended up getting some food (chicken, chips and salad) from a local cuisine which cost us just $2500 pesos! Thanks to the tour guide for recommending that we go there! We decided to check out the bars in the student area so sat and had a beer there and absorbed the vibrant atmosphere around us. The beer comes in a massive screw top bottle and was just 2000 pesos for some Escudo beer. We were a little more careful on the metro this evening!

I decided to leave Santiago on Wednesday 28th with Antony and the English couple. We jumped on the Turbus and headed to Valpareso which was just an hour and a half away. We hadn't done any research as to where to stay so I suggested that we check out the hostel that my friends had suggested. We all had to jump on the local bus which was an interesting experience in itself. The bus was full of people and we had so many bags between the four of us, I don't know what the locals were thinking when they saw us, bags piled on our laps and squashed on the seats. I'm not quite sure how we managed to get off either, but somehow we found ourselves getting off with just a 5 minute walk away from the hostel. We checked into Case Verde Limon which was a quirky hostel, and then headed out to town to find some food. We all enjoyed a Menu del Dia for $5000 pesos and a very lovely view looking out at the city and the sea. It was a relaxing evening strolling around town which is pretty damn cool and chilling in the hostel.

The next morning the English couple took a bus north so I decided to join a Wally walking tour (you can see pictures of my wheres wally in the photos!). Again, I loved the tour. The guide was brilliant; we tried a homemade traditional biscuit from a local man in his house - the biscuit was covered in chocolate and had a yummy caramel centre (a bit like a wagon wheel!) as well as an alcoholic Chilian drink called pisco sour; we took a 100 year old lift; an 80 year old electric bus. It was a great morning! I then went to check out the graphity street which was awesome and had some lunch in the local market. I would have wondered upstairs if it wasn't for the tour guide telling us about this. It was a pretty crazy place, with lots of little restaurants - some rooms were like normal sophisticated restaurants, but others were tiny boxes and were decorated like it was a living room. Some of the kitchens that I could see into also seemed like it was part of a house! I ended up ordering fish and chips, of course not realising I would get this - it was part of the menu del dia. In the afternoon I chilled back at the hostel, skyped some lovely people and ended up going out with a German couple and Frenchy for some beers and wine with ice cream (yes strange but a local thing to do and it was quite tasty)! We were lucky that the good bars were a 2 minute walk from our hostel, so we soaked in the south American party scene, with some live music and a bit of dancing too.

As I didn't end up going to sleep until 4am, I stayed in bed until midday. I took the metro to Viva del Mar which was a 10 minute journey along the coast. The city was very different to pretty Valpariso which had lots of cute streets, very colourful houses, old buildings, great street art...Viva del Mar was very European, much bigger, better houses, more sophisticated shopping malls, but with cool little markets in between the shops and a nice botanical garden with a long stretch of sandy beach. In the evening I purchased by bus ticket to Mendoza which left at 8.30am the following day.

8.30am on Saturday 31st, I was on my way into Argentina on the bus. I was very comfortable on this bus - we even got given a chocolate snack bar, a cookie and a carton of juice! Nice ey J

The journey took 7 hours but I didn't sleep because I couldn't stop looking out the window...the scenery was incredible as we drove through the Andes! I was also trying to learn Spanish at the same time on my phone and watching some Spanish films that were being played on the bus. I think it's a good way to learn the language. Luckily there were a South African couple who were also on my bus and heading to the same hostel as me so we all walked there together and then explored the city. It was a really nice atmosphere and had an area with lots of market stools with a street full of restaurants and bars. We grabbed a pizza for $35 Argentinean pesos, which is about £4. It was yummy and well desired after a long bus journey.

It's now the 1st of September! Ah scary! So I went for a stroll around the city at about midday...and EVERYTHING is closed. I forgot it was a Sunday. But I went to see the 'main sights' in the city and now I'm just catching up with bits and bobs back in the hostel. Hopefully I will do a walk tomorrow and then hire a bike to tour around the different vineyards. I best get learning some more Spanish too J

xxx