So there we were at another border crossing, this time somewhere in the icy Andes. Why they put a border crossing on top of a freezing mountain when on the Argentinian side and the Chilean side there is generally beautiful sunshine just defies logic!! ...maybe they get sick of the burning heat and like a bit of frost? Anyway there we were in the longest queue ever waiting to get stamped with an icy blizzard blowing a hooley outside! Chaos ensued as there didn't seem to be any system at all, hundreds of people in various states of confusion everywhere. Being very British Ray and I got a bit miffed at all the pusher inners and the cattle market pillar to post system they had in place. Finally, after a two hour wait in the tundra we got stamped and moved onto the next fiasco, the nothing to declare section...

Nothing ever really goes smoothly for Ray and I at border control but this time I think we just about got away with it. On our form we had indeed ticked nothing to declare but when we actually stood in line it suddenly occurred to us that we did have several bottles of Argentinian red and a large bottle of olive oil stashed away in our back packs.

A big beefy scary looking guard with a matching dog approached us;

Guard- "Ah Englissss, anything to declare?"

Us - "Nope!"...

Guard - "Fruitas"?

Us - "What???...well yes we have these two lovely ripe bananas for cheeky snackage later, but surely you don't want......."

Guard-" Give...Por favor"

Us- "But we might get hungr...oh you have a gun... ok"

So he confiscated our bananas!!... He probably took them outside and had them shot!

Luckily he didn't delve any deeper into the bags...phew!!

So after a few hundred icy hairpin bends later we arrived in Santiago and searched in the pouring rain for our hostel which had been recommended by the nice girl in Mendoza.

We finally found the place, a vast, old 'luxury' hotel, well it was luxury in 1902. It had been converted into rooms, flats, apartments and on the 6th floor a hostel. The hostel itself was ok and had a fab view overlooking the main Plaza Des Armes and the fattest dog in the whole of Chile (so fat that it actually looked more like a pig, in fact I thought it was a pig to start with...a guard pig if you will) guarding the place...

We were shown to our room which was down the stairs on the fourth floor at the end of a long echoey tiled corridor. There were small kids playing football and riding tricycles up and down, bit like a scene from the 'Shining'....another spooky place!!...we do pick em!

We spent a few days visiting the sights of Santiago, the beautiful Belle Vista view point, where the funicular railway trundles up to the top of mountain and overlooks the city while beautiful tranquil music is played from the huge marble statue of Mary who stands next to a pretty convent church. A very peaceful place with fantastic photo opportunities.

We wandered around the famous fish market which has the same roof as Smithfield's market in London; apparently we gave them the roof as a prezzie many years ago! ..allegedly made in Birmingham!!...but for me the best thing about where we were was the actual main square in Santiago that our hostel over looked. A beautiful palm tree'd, illuminated fountainy place at night but a hive of human and animal busyness going on during the day. Crazy dogs, terrorising flocks of pigeons, dancing one man band bands all playing in sync, artists, singers, beggars, military bands, human statues ( best one was 'Miguel' Jackson, dancing in sparkly socks and gloves on top of a wobbly tin drum!!) and the crazy faith healer who was there every day shouting the odds through a massive Marshall amplifier for hours and hours building to such a crescendo that it was reminiscent of one of Hitler's Reichstag speeches!...people formed massive crowds around him and joined in the shouting then queued up to be healed. On several occasions we saw grown men crying as he 'cured' them or 'cleansed' them of their sins...mmmm jury's out on that one!!

The balcony of the hostel was a prime position to sip a nice glass of Chilean red and watch the sun going down on the proceedings below..always been a bit partial to people watching...great stuff!!

One day we came back to the hostel to be told that they were fumigating our rooms!!..(dont think it had anything to do with us)....so we decided to get on a bus and head for the Chilean coast for a few days.

The guys at the hostel recommended two little beach resorts Vina Del Mar and Valparaiso (Pronounced and locally known as Binia and Balpo)..