Within two hours of arriving in Santiago, Dan and I were huddled in a doorway, sitting on our bags, with our raincoats on prepared to spend the next three or four hours sleeping exactly where we were! After leaving the airport we managed, with some effort, to find an ATM and grab a taxi to our hostel. We we had arrived in Chile a day early so had no booking, but we figured we could just book an extra night on arrival. Having succesfully located said hostel we knocked the door and rang the doorbell for an hour before giving up and setting up camp! Luckily, the guy on reception, woke up a couple of hours later and let us in to a small room where I stayed for the next 20 hours sleeping, dreamlessly! The tour had left me absolutlely exhausted, half a stone lighter, with a stomach bug and a kidney infection! Leaving the tour group, and saying goodbye to Liz and Ali, the couple who had travelled through Mendoza and across the border with us, had also induced an intense feeling of loneliness and longing for home. I did, however, wake feeling immensely better and switched to a cheaper shared room, now that my intense vomiting had ceased and I wouldn't keep anyone up! Dan and I headed out into the fantastic city of Santiago. My first impression was that it was a warmer version of London, with the same fast-paced ambience of Leicester Square, and I strolled through the streets and crowds feeling a lot less homesick. We walked along the Santiago river, although it seemed much more like an open sewage system, being a dirty brown in colour and producing a less than desirable odour! We had dinner on the roof of our hostel and at sunset could see dozens of snow-capped mountains in the distance; the whole of Santiago is surrounded by the mountain range. The next day was halloween and although we were told that South America didn't celebrate 'All Hallow's Eve' there were little stalls and vendors selling witches hats and pitch forks on almost every corner. In the evening Dan and went for a walk around the city centre to visit the plazas after dusk; most Spanish Plazas are actually designed and built for the night time so it's the best time to see them. As we approached the main Plaza the sounds of Michael Jackson filled the air and the whole of the square was filled with children dressed as zombies performing a well rehearsed version of Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'. The local samba and dance school had clearly worked very hard for this Halloween! Hundreds of locals had come to watch the show and lined the Plaza, singing and joining in with dancing. It was fantastic to watch and a real surprise. The next day we met a couple of friends for dinner in the city. We had met them in Peru and they were in Santiago at the same time and, coincidentally, were booked on the same flight to New Zealand with us the following evening. We had a great night and tried some local seafood dishes and very interesting lagers! The next day we spent packing and repacking as nothing seemed to fit anymore, despite having heaps of room left when we left the UK. Dan warned me, fruitlessly, to stop shopping. In the afternoon we took the 'funicular' up the "Great Hill" to see the Virgin of Santiago, a huge white statue of The Mother of God, which looks out over the city of Santiago before heading back to our hostel to settle our debt. We jumped in a cab and headed for the airport, neither of us looking forward to the 13 hour flight ahead of us; with the time difference meant that we would lose Tuesday 4th November completely! The flight itself, as well as customs and passport control went without a hitch and at 4am on my 24th birthday we left Auckland airport to be greeted by a cold, wet and rather sad looking New Zealand. Nevertheless, I could not settle the butterflies in my stomach as we sat on the bus on the way to our hostel, wondering what advenutres could possibly top South America.

Thought of the Day: At the end of my visit to South America I am reminded of what my good friend, Aldous Huxley, once said: "To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries."