Santiago

After a good overnight bus we arrived in the capital of Chile, Santiago. The city was practically deserted as it was a Sunday morning. Our hostal was a bit weird but had lots of naughty kittens which were very friendly apart from one which was just plain nasty and constantly picked fights with the others. The area we stayed in was ok, a bit far from anywhere but had some good places to eat including a lunch where we had an aperitif (Pisco Sour), glass of wine and a digestif plus a starter, main and dessert all for a fiver! It was fantastic!

Santiago itself is not much to look at. Most of the old buildings have been destroyed in earth quakes and been rebuilt with nasty 70`s office blocks. We walked to the top of one if the hills in the city. It was hard going under the baking sun and Colin and I are pretty bored of walking up mountains and hills now. The views of Santiago were pretty good though. We got to the top, expecting some swimming pools but it turned out we had to get a cable car to another hill. The cars themselves are pretty rickety and for the whole time we were on them, Colin wouldn`t open his eyes and screamed like a girl whose had her ice cream stolen from her. Finally, we found the pools and went for a swim and relaxed for a while in the sun.

For our final evening, we headed to an area called Bellavista which is the party place. We ended up getting hammered and had to get on the bus the next day with a hangover to Mendoza in Argentina. Overall, Santiago`s ok to stay in for a couple of days but nothing more really. It`s nothing compared with the likes of Buenos Aires.