Hey Folks!

After a long night bus we arrived in Santiago about 7:30 Tuesday Morning. The weather was looking great so we checked into our room and wondered up the street for some breakfast. We spent the morning wondering around the city centre looking at the sites and went into the modern art museum (which Tom struggled to appreciate - especially after seeing a sculpture of felt tip pens melted together!) In the afternoon we took the cable car up to see the Virgin Mary Statue which was interesting and we had amazing views of the city from the top, although right above the city there is a thick cloud of smog. Santiago lies in a valley so there is not enough wind to blow away the pollution, it is the most polluted city in the world. That night we all went out for some drinks as a few people were leaving the group.

On Wednesday we got up early (Tom was still drunk) and left to get a bus to visit a coastal city called Valparaiso. It´s a large town and some parts were quite poor but other parts were nice, some houses were painted all sorts of different colours. After lunch we got the train to Valparaiso´s neighbouring town called Vina de Mar. Vina de Mar is Chile´s premier beach resort and is alot different to Valparaiso, which has more history. In the evening we went out to a Chinese restaurant which was good value for money. Kim had an early night as she wasn´t feeling well and Tom stayed down to watch the football with the others, Chile Vs Argentina. Chile won 1:0, the first time they have beaten Argentina in 35 years, the whole city went crazy!

Today we got up fairly late and wondered down to the handy craft market and then onto the Pre-Columbian Museum where we saw some of South America´s history, it was really interesting. After lunch we walked around the mall and Tom bought some new T-shirts -dead cheap

Tonight we are going for a meal with the new guys that have joined our group. We wont have a late night as we have to leave at 7:30am tomorrow to head to La Serena.

Don´t work too hard!

Love us x x x