Our first experience in time travel - or more accurately, our very first long-haul flight across the International Date Line - took its toll on us. Whilst we were excited to finally be in South America, we were also pretty exhausted after very little sleep on the plane from Auckland to Santiago: As is customary in these situations, we were subjected to a constant whinging child and very little leg room. There was also insufficient free wine to knock us out for a few hours, so we spent the duration wide-eyed and uncomfortable.

Things perked up slightly when approaching Santiago when the Andes became visible. The views were breath-taking and the mountain range stretched for as far as the eye could see. This gave us renewed optimism, but it didn't last long as no sooner had the plane touched down, Shaun's backside touched down on a number of the terminal building's toilet seats, with his stomach voicing its disapproval of having landed on strange land.

To add to our already eventful start, our Spanish language skills were put to the test immediately. Although we have both taken extensive lessons, being put on the spot after a sleepless 11.5 hour flight meant that we struggled to articulate ourselves to say the least. Nevertheless, we still managed to sort ourselves through customs, baggage claim and into a shared taxi to take us to our accommodation.

Things didn't get much better on arrival at the hostel either. Despite having booked and paid a deposit online, the staff had no record of our reservation and were fully booked up. No doubt, they could see that we were getting a bit tetchy and so after around 15 minutes of half English, half Spanish discussions, they bit the bullet and just upgraded us to a better room for the same price. Needless to say, we were both completely exhausted and so the rest of the day went by both of us sound asleep.

After resting our bodies overnight, we felt a million times better and were ready to explore the city. So we took a little self-made walking tour around the central neighbourhoods and added in a couple of Santiago's hills to try and get good bird-eye views of the city - which were somewhat obstructed from the layer of smog.

As we were waiting for the cable cart to take us back down on San Cristobal hill, Shaun decided that an older gentleman simultaneously playing the panpipes and a guitar for tips would make a good photo, so he wandered over to him and chucked a couple of coins into his hat. However, he somehow managed to drop a coin that tipped over the poor man's cup of coffee. As the chap's back was turned, Shaun placed the cup upright and allowed a well-timed stream of water from a gardener's hose wash away the evidence. He then got his photo - which the man duly posed for - but we had an anxious five minute wait before the cable cart departed. The worst part was trying to stifle our laughs as the man went to take a sip of his drink only to realise that it was empty. Oops.

After a cheap, yet quite delicious "menu del dia" lunch in the sunshine, we then found a bar to watch the Manchester derby and probably put the restaurateurs off English football fans for life. Shaun was happy to have discovered though that Santiago appeared to be completely 'blue', no doubt having something to do with City manager, Manuel Pelligrini having come from there.

With a solid City victory in the bag and having already drank ourselves past the point of no return, the night descended into a slight chaos. We first got chatting to a few French lads in the hostel bar and then retired back to our room. However, after a few too many beautifully smooth glasses of Carmenere red wine, I managed to pour a full one onto our bed. Yes, I am 31 years of age.

Best. Doggy. Ever.

The majority of the next day was spent in bed, save for a trip out for food in the morning and for the cleaners asking us to leave the room so that they could change our wine-sodden sheets.

At around 5pm, I eventually felt good enough to join Shaun on his trip of choice to see the National Football Stadium. Although we couldn't actually get very close to the stadium at all to take decent photos, the trip was made more than worthwhile by a stray black puppy, who decided to make us his best human friends ever.

The curious, kind-natured, mix-breed dog - whom we named Pedro - literally would not let us out of his sight and followed us half way walking up to the stadium and all the way back to Metro station - a distance of around 5km in total.

We had to stop along the way at a street-side shop and buy him some strange dehydrated meat in the hope that we could sneak away from him while he ate. But no. He was right behind us, making sure we got to the station safe, from where he was ushered out by a security guy.

While digging into our Churrasco sandwiches for dinner that night, I could not help but feel sad for the poor b***** and I wished I could have taken him along and flown him home to wait for us.

Pedro was the best dog ever.

Oh, I'm sorry, I think this chapter was supposed to be about the football stadium. Ah well. Never mind.

The Universe had spoken.

After receiving a recommendation and having previously read about visiting the town of Valparaiso - a hilly, colourful seaside town a couple of hours away from Santiago - we decided to make the side-trip on our last full day in the Chilean capital.

The night before I started reading about the place and how to get there by bus, and noticed that most of the discussion forums mentioned a very dodgy terminal. Disregarding it, we got up early and double-checked with our hostel reception on the departing bus station. However, even the receptionist had a word of warning to say about the Valparaiso area.

Nonetheless, Shaun and I (with my now quite painful left knee from the hike in New Zealand) trundled onto the Metro station and boarded a train to take us to the Santiago bus terminal.

After getting a couple of stops down the line, an announcement mentioned that this was to be the last station. Slightly confused, we followed everyone out of the train and then stood back as everyone re-embarked a minute later. Completely dumbfounded, we were left on the platform and so discussed whether to try for another station where you could also get the Valparaiso bus. As we made our decision, two trains came and went before we stood back in line for the next arrival.

When we walked on the fourth train, we were ordered to immediately disembark again. So, very confused once more, we went back out to the platform, only this time, we joined the crowds to wait to be let back on. However, the doors never re-opened and the train reversed back to the way it came.

It was at this point when we starting to think twice about the trip. While neither of us are in anyway superstitious or believers of fate, when we added this train debacle to the other objections - my sore knee vs a very steep hillside town and the potentially unsafe surroundings - we reluctantly opted out of the trip.

Not a bad consolation though…

To make up for the loss of experiencing Valparaiso's colourful buildings and street art, we decided to treat our stomachs instead and so headed for an early lunch at a Santiago sandwich institution called Fuente Alemana.

The Bavarian inspired café has been in business for over 50 years and has been visited by numerous celebrities in this time, including Anthony Bourdain, who raved about it in his 'No Reservations' TV show, a favourite watch of ours.

So, as the queues are very much out of the door at peak times, we arrived there at 10:30am and tucked in to the two unanimous recommendations: 'Lomito Italiana' (braised pork, mayo, tomato and avocado), and 'Rumano' (chorizo and beef burger with the addition of cheese, more mayo and tomato).

There's definitely a reason why places like this gain the reputation that they do, as the sandwiches more than lived up to the hype and were very reasonably priced. So after gorging ourselves to contentment, we stumbled out thinking 'Valparai-who?'

Finishing with the staples

With a final bottle of Chilean red and churrasco sandwich for a late dinner (yes, another churrasco; they bloody love them here and so do we), we got ourselves ready for our morning bus to Mendoza, Argentina.

Chile had proven a great first taste into South America and we couldn't wait to see more. Maybe speaking and understanding Spanish will get easier too. I know the abundant cheaply-priced-yet-expensively-tasting wine helps; I'll just have to try and keep it in the glass from now on!