Day 363, 2 July 2013, Santiago, Chile. Another beautiful day dawned at the foot of the Andes. It was obviously going to be a relatively big packing day - positively enormous plane trip awaited us at 11.20 pm - 18 odd hours from Santiago to Sydney. So we packed and that was that - a bit of sooking on was definitely happening on my part (and I'm sure on James's as well). We eventually dropped the bags at the office, checked out and went to see what the markets of Santiago could offer us to snuffle up the last of our Chilean pesos. It turns out that Lapis Lazuli is the national stone of Chile. Already bought a nice pendant from Peru that was snazzier than local offerings, so that was good. Most of the other souvenirs were pretty dire (though some Peruvian alpaca knitwear had made it to the markets with only a 25% mark up on Peru prices). This led to one purchase - a stunning sweater for James. Which then led to strolling down another laneway at the Santa Lucia Artisans market - where we found me a cable knit, zip up sweater with a hood. For less than the price of two balls of wool in Australia. So authentic there were still little bindys in the wool. Anyway - we lurched onwards to the post office to find there were 80 people in front of us (the perils of taking a ticket is you can immediately see it's not going to happen in your lifetime). Gave up on that idea and joined a 4 hour walking tour - the last day was probably a bit late to be doing it - but it kept us amused until 7 pm and we saw some wonderful sights and learned much about Chilean culture. For instance - Coffee with Legs! Most coffee served in cafes in Chile actually does come out of the Nescafe jar, but if you want real coffee there are coffee shops equipped with a bar and a statuesque blonde or brunette in a very short skirt (they resemble belts to be honest). Real businessmen type hangouts. There used to be 100 or more of these coffee shops (now only 20 or so) that come with the added extra of happy minutes. They roll down the security shutters - turn on the music and take off their tops for the coffee drinkers pleasure - a few random times a day. If that seems a bit backward just think - they only outlawed smoking in restaurants and bars 2 months ago - we really timed our trip here well! (Mind you, with cigarettes costing $3 for a pack of 20, you'd think they were picking popes - there is that much smoke in the streets). The tour took us through downtown and we ended up on the other side of the river - the Bellavista neighbourhood. The sky was flaming pink, streaked with clouds and before we knew it it was time to make way to hotel. We collected our bags, hit the airport and before you could say "thank god we're doing it in business", we were tucked into the LAN lounge, showered, changed and scarfing down Louis Roederer champagne and sushi. A fitting end to our fabulous adventure.