We finally spent some time in Santiago after passing through it a few times on the way to other places. It is a city and there wasn't a huge amount to do there but we managed to entertain ourselves for a few days. The hostel we stayed in was great - it was an old mansion house and so the bedrooms had huge high ceilings, complete with the original ornate cornicing, wooden floors and huge staircases.

After our "safety breifing" from a very stern German girl at the hostel we nearly decided to hole up inside for 3 days!!! However we did manage to brave it and go out and wander the streets of Valpariso a few times. It is a real mix of smart, ex colonial buildings, usually hotels or resteraunts and painted houses clad in corrigated iron. It does however have a lovely feel to it with street art and mosaics everywhere amoungst the higledy pigledy streets ...

Mendoza is right over on the other side fof Argentina from Buenos Aires so we set off in the evening on the overnight bus and arrived at our hostel bright and early in the morning. The first thing that hit us is that Mendoza is hot! Very hot! It is the first place we have been in South America where they have a Siesta, and you can see why! Mendoza is Argentina´s wine capital, it has lovely wide streets with trees and green everywhere, it feel completely safe an...

It´s fabulous here!! We would gladly stay for longer but the vineyards are a-calling...We have spent 6 days here and have been all over the city. We have seen the Evita museum (did you know she was only 33 when she died?!), visited her grave (Catholic´s certainly know how create a spectacular graveyard), visited an art gallery with works by all the famous artists I can name, watched a tango show (a little nervously as we were in the front row, but luckily there...

The final destination of the ´organised´part of the trip and where we had to say goodbye to all the friends we have made over the last few months which was evry sad, especially as we may not see some of the again (spread all over the world). Our last supper didn´t quite work out as the various taxi drivers couldn´t find the restaurant we had all agreed to meet in, and as a result we all got split up so we had dinner in a Jazz cafe with Tracey and Kathy. It ac...