8/7/9 La Serena to Santiago

Having spent the first couple of hours cleaning yet again we left La Serena heading straight for santiago. We drove through Chile passing snow capped Andean peaks and stopped for lunch overlooking a spectactular beach. Some tents were hung up to dry and we must have looked like an impromptu camping shop as we were right on the side of the main road!!! We pulled into Santiago in the late afternoon and checked into the Casa Roja hostel which is a converted mansion house with high ceilings and loads of character . The room we got was right next to the kitchen and bar but was suprisingly quiet thank goodness. We had spotted a sign for a ski trip into the Andes and hopefully we will be able to fit that in to our busy plans. We all went to get takeaway pizza to eat back at the hostel but there must have been a problem with all of our orders because we ended up with 15x2 litre tubs of ice cream as well as the pizza !!! The hostel freezer was stuffed but everyone helped themselves and all was good. We ate and then sat in one of the rooms drinking as it was the last night of the trip and a few people are heading off tomorrow.

9/7/9 Santiago

We need to post loads of souvenirs home and also send a parcel for Sarahs birthday so we went to the post office to collect some boxes. We had a quick look on the internet but hadn't got time for any blogging so this is all post dated.....sorry for the delays but we are far to busay enjoying our travels to be sat in the internet cafes for houres on end. once in NZ we will keep on top of it a bit better hopefully. When we got back to the hostel we decided to book the skiing trip for tomorrow which means a 7am start. The resort is called Valle Nevado and it should be great. Liz had her bank card blocked today and had to call UK to get it unblocked which was a pain especially as we had given them a list of our dates and destinations. After lunch we went back to our room to pack the huge box going home and Sarahs littler one. The bigger box feels really heavy and will probably cost a fortune to send home but never mind. Once we were all packed up we met up with Kristy, Brendan and Renae for a Chinese meal as it is Renaes last night.....bad Chinese food in South America!!!! We then went to the hostel bar and ended up drinking until 2am so we have only 4 hours before skiing.......whoops!!!

10/7/9 Valle Nevado skiing

We woke with a start at 6.57am but managed to make the 7am bus to the mountains. At 10.00 we arrived at the resort in clear sunny skies and it was relatively warm despite an altitude of 3800m. We collected our hire gear which was new this season and headed to the slopes. Our ski boots were like wearins slippers, well comfortable. It is a small resort but the pistes are really well kept and it had snowed overnight so we had perfect conditions. It was very quiet there so we had runs to ourselves and there were no queues for any lifts. We skied most of the resort including the black runs and really enjoyed a great day. Phil attempted a jump in the off piste deep snow but all I saw was him swan diving head first into deep powder snow and being buried up to his waist skis flying off...Liz couldn't stop laughing for ages it looked hilarious!!!!We got a bus back into Santiago at 5pm after a lovely day with amazing views of the sun setting over the Andes. We got back to the hostel just in time to see Renae off and have a barbecue dinner at the hostel. As soon as we had eaten we crashed into bed leaving everyone partying without us lightweights!!!

11/7/9 Santiago to Airport we woke early to finish our packing and took a taxi to post our parcels. Phil had packed all our souvenirs carefully and taped the box up but the postal staff have to open and check each parcel!!! What a faff to open everyones parcels. After she had destroyed the perfect packing we taped the box back up and evetually got it posted. Hopefully it will arrive unscathed at some point. Sarahs' was much easier and should be quicker but who knows! After sorting the post we paid a visit to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino which is a fantastic museum charting the history of the people of the Americas including Incas, Aztecs, Mayans etc. The arftefacts there were the best collection we had seen in South America. After that we went to San Christobel which is a statue of Virgin Mary perched on a high hill overlooking Santiago which you get a Funicular railway to. There is a chapel, an open church and a shrine to Pope John Paul and we saw a lovely sunset over Santiago . We took a short stroll through the party part of Santiago called Bellavista before heading back towards the hostel to get some food before going to the airport. We had another huge steak which Phil had to leave (Liz ate all hers...pig!) .We returned to the hostel to say some quick goodbyes before jumping in a cab to the airport where all the fun began. We handed our passports over to the checkin girl and she spent the next hour looking perplexed and getting all sorts of help from supervisors. We were really worried that we weren't on the flight but finally she handed over the boarding passes much to our relief. Because of the huge wait at the desk we had to board straight away and we had been put far apart for the 13 hour flight. Lots of people including a small child that had been seperated from his parents so there were all sorts of shinannigans to move people around before the plane took off!!

Bye for now from South America, if you've enjoyed our tales so far join us for more adventures in New Zealand..........

South America summed up!!!

Beautiful but tiring. Lovely welcoming people, great Spanish colonial architecture. Amazon, Andes and desert.

Ecuador: Really lush and warm great variety and good fun things to do including mountains to climb, would visit again.

Peru: More desert then expected, amazing Inca trail and Inca ruins , lots of amazing archeological sites, lots of traditional dress and culture.

Bolivia: Desolate, mad unsealed bumpy roads, crazy dynamite shops and fireworks in the streets, electrocuting showers and really cheap.

Chile: Beautiful coastline and Andean views, great skiing.

I'd rather be at work, Not!!!!!!