Our last bus journey to our last destination in South America was a 30 hour bus journey!!It felt appropriate to have a long journey for our last trip!!We arrived in Santiago in the afternoon.

The hostel we were staying in Casa Roja was really good and had a great kitchen so we were able to cook a few meals in the hostel for ourselves.We checked out the city for a couple of days and then we booked a trip to the Concha Y Toro vineyard which was cool.We were very surprised with Santiago as we believed it was just another big SA city but it was really nice. It nearly felt like we were walking around New York or Boston with Starbucks or Subway on every corner. All the buildings seemed really modern too and they were all decked out in their festive Christmas decorations which started to get us into the spirit of things. We checked out all the view point areas and one day we went to the top of Cerro San Cristobal which gave us unbelievable views of the whole city.

The visit to the Concha Y Toro vineyard was definitely the highlight of the trip to Santiago especially as we had not touched a drop of drink for the entire month of November. We were lucky that there were only 3 of us doing the tour of the vineyard and cellars that day so we could ask our guide all the questions we wanted. It was so interesting to see all the different vines and the different stages each grape were at for that time of the year. Also it was a really different tour from the ones we had been on in Argentina in that it went into more of the history of the wine and family behind it. The most famous wine they distribute is Casillero del Diablo which means The Cellar of the Devil. This legend was told to the locals by the wealthy family who owned the vineyards. It was believed that the devil lived in the cellars of the Concha y Toro winery and haunted anyone who entered the cellar uninvited. Of course this was a story the family made up to deter local thieves from stealing barrels of wine from the cellar…it worked though and the legend was born!!An unforgettable day that was topped off with a meal in a gorgeous Chilean restaurant called The Fat Cow where we of course enjoyed more beautiful Chilean wine. Time now to start thinking of moving to on to our next country…luckily for us, the next country spoke English as a fist language. Sad to be leaving South America but had an amazing experience and did so much over our time here that we definitely have no regrets. More importantly we will certainly be back!

Santiago Done!!