Hola!!!

Have now arrived in Santiago, Chile!!

For all the modes of transport and distances I have travelled I can safely say I have never travelled back in time until today! Left Auckland at 16:40 on the 17th and arrived in Santiago at 11:30 on the 17th after a 10 hour flight!

Leaving NZ was sad as had an amazing time there but was so excited to see what south America had to offer.

Flight wasn't too bad with LAN Airlines even had edible food!! Although movie choice did let it down although the selection of games, including a Spanish language game, did compensate somewhat. However didn't manage any sleep, very unusual for me haha. So arrived in Santiago begging to get to bed! However we had the small problem of getting the 26km from the airport to our hostel. With very limited Spanish and no real sense of direction we headed for the public transport bus after mummbling in bad Spanish where we wanted to go and handing over our first pesos we were on our way! Excitement was building and sleeping was becoming a distant memory that was pushed further away when we then had to navigate the Santiago Metro! Thanks to the helpful staff and a map we manage to buy tickets and make our way backpacks and all to the train before changing trains and lines and making that walk to hostle feeling very proud of ourseleves and not in the least bit tired! After checking in and meeting our roomies decided to venture onto the Santiago streets to find some typical Chilean food! Another thing we joyfully acheived! After wandering and getting laughed at we decided to brave a Chilean fast food restaurant and ordered the speciality Italiano which was a hot dog smothered in salsa, sour cream and guacamole!! When it appeared certainly didn't look most appetising with the sauce almost dripping off it haha but it did taste good! Although was eaten with great difficulty to stop spilling all the sauce haha.

After food returned to hostel where we fought the urge to sleep by enjoying the rooftop terrace and lounge area resisting the urge to give into our jetlag!

Tomorrow hoping to be much more awake and start exploring Santiago properly!

xxxxx