We arrived in Santiago ahead of time after a restful nights sleep on the bus (I am definitely getting better at sleeping properly on buses!) and caught a taxi to Bellavista Hostel in the Bellavista district (surprising that!) of Santiago. It was 8am when we arrived but we couldn't check into our room until 13.30, so we had a bit of breakfast and spent a few hours sitting on the sofas in reception. Scott amused himself on wifi and I pressed on with my novel.

By mid morning we were reading to go out for an explore. Having spent a while studying the Lonely Planet I suggested we take the Cerro San Cristobal Funicular, which is a kind of tram ferrying passengers uphill on tracks to the top of a small hill 863m high - which boasts great views over the city. The weather here in Santiago is warmer than in Pucon as we are further north so the sun was beating down on us by the time we reached the top of the funicular. We climbed a stairway to a white 14m high statue called Virgin de la Inmaculada Concepcion at the summit. Luckily the smog wasn't too thick and we were able to get a good panoramic view and really appreciate the scale of this capital city. We had hoped to take a cable car to the other side of the hill and walk back to our hostel along the river - but unfortunately the cable car wasn't running and the way by foot wasn't clear so we went back down the funicular and stopped for lunch in Bellavista. We ordered sandwiches that were so huge we had to cut them in half and take half away from the restaurant for dinner! Overall my impressions so far of Santiago are good - it seems clean, the people friendly, and the city itself more green and less frenetic than I was expecting. A few of the upmarket areas in Bellavista are so westernised they could be mistaken for a trendy part of London.

The district of Bellavista is the arty cultural section of Santiago and is also the place to go for pavement cafes and restaurants watching the world go by. At night it reportedly comes alive with bars and clubs and live music venues. We wouldn't know about that because after 1 mojito late afternoon I felt decidedly drunk (it was so strong) and we made our way back to the hostel! What party animals we are! But none the less we enjoyed our drink in the late afternoon sun and had a good heart to heart about love and life.

We sat in bed watching a few episodes of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadephia' and had an earlyish night as we have to get up early tomorrow to pack our bags well ready for the NZ flight; and to catch a city tour of Santiago starting in the main square at 10am.