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Mike & Benedict's World Adventures
Our first stop in South America (the only place you can fly into from New Zealand) was Santiago, Chile. We had heard many things about Santiago but most saying that it wasn't hugely interesting however Ben and myself had a good time exploring the different areas of the city and encountering our first taste of South American culture.
Our first day there we embarrased ourselves at lunch looking at the menu and trying to order food from the menu in Spanish we had learnt in the van in New Zealand just to be stared at blankly. After regarding the spanish menu for a considerable amount of time I opted for pizza (the obvious safe option) whilst Ben was a bit more daring and ordered a dish that he hoped he knew what it was - he looked decidely apprehensive until the dish arrived and it was what he wanted. Amazingly the already cheap meals were added to with loads of free bread and a dessert much to our enjoyment.
We then headed up a hill that resides in Santiago which is dwarfed by the Andes that are visible pretty much from anywhere in the city. We rode near the top of the hill on a tram like device before walking the rest to see the statue of Mary that stands on the top. The view from the top is quite amazing, finally realising how big Santiago is with it's huge layer of smog hovering above.
Ben also went skiing once again this time up in the Andes which he said was amazing with some of the best views he had seen.
Our only problem in Santiago was getting into a normal sleeping pattern after we had gone back 17hrs (taking off from New Zealand at 5.45pm on the 15/07 and arriving at 12.45 on the 15/07 - you can do the math to work out how long the flight was). This meant there was also much daytime sleeping.
We then made our way down to Pucon in the South of Chile which required a 20hour-ish bus journey. Our arrival in the South brought back the cold we had just had a couple of days break from in Santiago. At the bus station we were met by an American guy called Greg who was working for one of the hostels and we agreed to go with him to check the hostel out and once there decided to stay. That afternoon one of his friend's from home also arrived and plans were soon made to go to the thermal pools nearby that evening with a couple of bottles of drinks.
The evening was a good laugh as we sat in the thermal pools for hours drinking and chatting, we also met a group of Brazilians there who joined what was now becoming a mini-party. The following day the weather was terrible so not much was done until the evening where we went to meet some of Greg's local friends who were really friendly but didn't speak much english so ben and myself did our best to understand with much gesturing and confused faces. After a few drinks Ben found the dog made a good pillow and were soon fast friends - quite an amusing site watching Ben half asleep laying on a dog at a hostel. A few drinks later at the hostel the locals owned and we headed to a bar in the small town where we stayed until the early hours of the morning.
We woke up the next day to find we had been invited around for dinner that evening at the other hostel but due to the weather little was done during the day again. The evening was excellent after we had bought food we went to the hostel cooked up some dishes (mostly done by Greg) and just sat around eating and chatting in front of a big fire for the rest of the evening. The party broke up arounf 2am as we were leaving the next day to catch a bus into Argentina.
The journey to Argentina required a change over in Orsorno where the American 2 were the first to one bus company and got the last 2 tickets with that company so Ben and myself carried on searching until we got another 2 tickets with another company. We next saw the Americans at the border where Greg was turned away as had overstayed his visa by a month and had to pay a fine to leave the country back in Orsorno. We then saw Jesse (the other American) again as our bus passed his on the spectacular snow covered high mountained Andes crossing. We later found out his bus had broken down and he had to hitch hike back to Orsorno - fortunately he spoke Spanish at least. So it was now onto Argentina but unfortunately it was not going to be starting with the 2 Americans we got on really well with but i'm sure we will see them again.
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