For anyone who has ever complained about having black snot after a ride on the London underground, I present to you...Santiago. The Chilean capital is among the world's top ten most polluted cities and you can tell. Home to around 5.5 million people, the city is located in a bowl of snowcapped Andean mountains. Its ironic that the beautuful and breathtaking backdrop to the city is also the main reason for its problems. Granted, I am visiting in a month when the 'smog' is particularly bad, but I don't know how you could live in such a place. I arrived at 6am on a Sunday morning and after a pinball ride on a local bus, I arrived in the Republica area of town which is where my hostel is situated. As I walked down Av. Republica I noted that there were not many people about. It suddenly dawned on me that I was going to be staying in the university district of town and therefore the chances of company on a weekday morning, let alone a Sunday morning, were about the same as Sp*rs chances of ever finishing above the mighty gooners! My first day in Santiago was mothers day, the reason for me highlighting this fact will become apparant as you read on. On the first evening, Julian, a Chilean guy that works at the hostel, took me along to watch Colo Colo who are the Manchester United of Chile. They beat a less than mediocre Coquimbo Unido 5 - 1. On the way to the game fans from a rival team, Univesidad de Chile, were on their way back from beating Universidad Catolica. As we arrived at the metro station for Colo Colo's stadium, about 25 of the Universidad de Chile fans stepped off the tube and started singing "Colo Colo, motherf*ckers"!! Colo Colo's victory took them to the top of the league and by the time it was 3-0 their fans were singing "Happy Mothers Day you Univesidad de Chile motherf*ckers, I am sleeping with your mum and your dad is here" obviously hoping that the Universidad de Chile fans had arrived home and were tuning into the game on tv! The next day I went on a fernicular train (no video footage Uncle Jonny) to the top of Cerro San Cristobal which is a big hill in the middle of the city. From there I got a teleferico across to some other lookouts. The teleferico was horrible! A small pod moving along a piece of dental floss about 500 metres above ground level. Having got back to the top of the fernicular train, I had lunch before having to hand over my passport since I had no cash and they didn't accept visa! I had to ride the fernicular train down to a bank and then convince the ticket lady that I needed a free ride back up to pay and to get my passport back! The following day I decided to go to Cerro Santa Lucia which is another hill which affords people who climb it good views of the city. Here I bumped into a Brazilian guy who I had met in Pucon. After walking around the downtown, watching some serious chess at Plaza Las Armas and eating lunch at the Mercado Central, we went to visit a girl he knew who was studying in the city. It was her birthday so we went out and drank Pisco Sour, a local drink which I can imagine, as its name might suggest, is similar to drinking sour piss! Champions League Wednesday arrived and after a brief visit to the Iberia office to negotiate flight changes, I went to the house of Tomas - a Chilean friend from Cuba holiday. There I met Chris - a Canadian friend from Cuba holiday. We had a bbq and watched Arsenal lose the Champions League Final. That night my friend Julian took me out for a few litres of commisseratory cerveza. Since that defeat I have been sulking around the hostel watching dvd's and doing everthing to avoid contact with the outside world! Having said that, I did go out on Friday night. I got pretty smashed on Mojito's before falling asleep in the taxi on the way home. My eyes hurt, I have a sore throat and I can't breathe properly so tomorrow I am heading to the coast to visit Valparaiso.