The trip to Santiago was inturrupted for about an hour while we crossed the border. The border control is right in the Andes and while the view is spectacular, it is also freezing! It was the first time we've been cold in months. We basically did a bunch of waiting around and then continued on our way, arriving in Santiago in the late afternoon on Tuesday 13 March. We took the subway (which is really good - best we've seen so far in South America) to near our hostel and walked the last bit. We settled in, grabbed a quick shower and then headed down to the nearest supermarket to get some things for supper. We spent the rest of the evening chilling at the hostel chatting with other travelers over a bottle of excellent Chilean wine :-)

Wednesday we got to sleep in a bit and grabbed breakfast just before it finished. Then we packed a daypack and took the train-lift up San Cristóbal, which is a big hill in the middle of Santiago. There is a big park at the top with various things to do, but we just checked out the statue of the virgin Mary and enjoyed the view. On our walk home we stopped at this little local place for a lunch of empanadas, which is a common, local deepfried pastry thing stuffed with different things - so good! We wandered around town a bit more and then headed home for a well deserved nap. We had left-overs for supper and then got dressed up and joined some Chilean friends, Ignacio and Fena, who we had met in Brazil for a St Patricks Day party. It was quite international and there was a good turnout - had a really good time :-) Weird thing was that none of the bartenders even knew what a Guiness was??

Thursday we slept in a bit. Monique wasn't feeling hundreds so she went back to sleep while I did some admin and tried to figure out how to finally get the ipod syncing on Ubuntu. Later on we walked down to the shop and came back back with a huge piece of steak which we cooked for lunch. Mmmm! That evening we packed a picnic and headed to a nearby park and had a great evening just chatting. We even befriended a stray dog :-) We returned to the hostel and continued chatting with other travelers late into the night.

Friday we were up early to meet Jared, a friend from South Africa who arrived in Santiago the previous day. We walked around doing a bit of sight-seeing. There was some big important thing going on at the presidential palace so, while we couldnt get too close, we did get quite a show. Afterwards we grabbed some lunch (empanadas and a "hot-dog") before walking Jared back to his hostel. On our way home to pack we got some snacks for the bus from the local supermarket - would turn out to be lifesaver! We took the subway to the bus station and got on our bus for the 24 hour trip to San Pedro de Atacama. Final impression: Had a fabulous time in Santiago - we would definitely like to go back :-)