Ola, ¿coma esta?

Greetings from Chile. Feels a bit odd writing that, because it doesn´t really seem like we´re in South America. I´m not sure what we were expecting but it's a bit like Spain! Honestly Santiago was just like Madrid minus the stag parties, very strange.

One slight difference is the Chileans really like to snog. Seriously I´m not kidding any public space, a park, city square or bench is filled with young and old Chileans just necking. Our Spanish is coming along slowly but we´ve yet to learn the Spanish for ´get a room´.

Santiago was an easy introduction to Chile but was lacking a little bit of an ummph. It had a few churches and museums but was lacking that one standout thing that was wholly unique. It did have a rather impressive statue of Mary (JC's mum) balancing on a hill overlooking the town and this could have been quite impressive but some wiz in the planning department had decided the best way to showcase the statue was to crowd it with radio masts and mobile phone transmitters - which somewhat detracts from her virginous wonder.

Leaving Santiago we headed to the city of Valparaiso - the cultural capital of Chile we are told. It definitely had more character than Santiago, and we enjoyed a day and a half here walking up and down steep hillside streets admiring ye oldie buildings in various states of disrepair. I'm not sure if it was beautiful but it was definitely old and bohemian - every second person was carrying a sketch pad or an easel. We really quite liked it.

Of course one of the reasons we liked it so much was that we had - because it was Polly´s birthday - booked ourselves into a very smart boutique hotel, with our own shower, free fruit and a TV! Pure luxury! After months without TV you wouldn´t believe how enjoyable an episode of CSI Miami can be.

To celebrate Polly´s birthday we booked a fantastic French restaurant had a slap up feed and then went out on the town. Muchos fun was had as, it being her birthday; Polly wouldn't let Pete sit down all night as we danced as if we´d heard all the songs before! Rock on amigo

We´ve now stopped in a seaside town to enjoy the pacific but this may have been an error as it is cloudy! So we´re booked on a 16hour coach journey tonight to take us north and into the desert. Don´t feel sorry for us though. The coaches here are magnificent: blankets, pillows, fully reclining seats, food included and if you´re lucky a film or two (fingers crossed for an episode of CSI?)