Chile - Santiago

So I am back reminiscing about the trip of a life time. What makes this post all the more exciting is the fact that I am recalling on memories so accuracy is likely to be debatable. It is almost like the bible and great religious texts being put together many years after the magic occurred. So were did I leave this, oh yeah that right - we had just completed the pretty bog standard trip around NZ in a green bus that shouted "made to measure for a typical brit backpackers". The green fuck bus as it is otherwise known as was a quick fix to a critical issue, time! We had overstayed in Asia and Aus resulting in flights from Auckland to Santiago to make the gigantic leap to the more relaxed south american continent a rare delicacy. We were told that flights were fully booked until September, well that wouldn't do bearing in mind it was frickin May. We were put on a waiting list and then told the following day we must travel in 10 days i.e. shot gun NZ trip in a bright green bus.

The flight to Santiago was in LAN airways, a blend a national south american airlines fused to make one credible large carrier - maybe Africa could learn from this rather than insist flying obsolete russian topolovs, alas this is another story. The flight was uneventful and we landed in Santiago, Chile. My first impression of Santiago was really positive, the back drop of the andes completely surrounds the city, which looks like a poor man's Madrid. I have not made this comparison because I didn't like it, much the contrary as there is a lot of 20th century architecture to feast ones eyes but all a bit run down on the whole. We decided to stay in the centre of town in a beautiful quarter/district called London, which was funnily enough adjacent to Paris. It was a dated hotel/hostel with communal bathrooms and an old lady running it. We were beat from the flight and decided to sleep it off waking up at silly o'clock with my sleep pattern all screwed up. Mark and I decided to go for a late night bite whilst Weli continued in his comatose state. We walked around for ages until we came across an infamous market (not busy at all). We found a local cafe/kiosk and ate like emperors. The food was awesome, we ate crab/fish stew which seemed like the perfect hangover cure and some red wine. There was fat indigenous women running the kiosk who didnt understand a word we were saying, I will still refining my portugues, adding some spanish words when I could. During the walk back the sun was rising on the city of Santiago and the feeling that we had reached the final continent started to sink in!

The next few days we continued to stay in the dated hostel with not much happening, I tried to meet up with an old school pal Diego Morales but he was off skiing in Portillo. We really didnt have the trip to Rio planned at this stage. We endulged on local delights like the italian hot dog which was so "manly". Its a straight up hot dog with a gigantic helping of guacamole, sour cream and ketchup (ie the italian flag, this didnt come to me that quickly either). Each cost typically 1.5$ and was great value for money, especially for a couple of broke ass travellers such as ourselves. By the third day and after a lot of site seeing, that's right folks we actually did museums etc we decided to seek some action and look for a more happening hostel and boy did we find it, two words, casa rosa!!!!!! however this is for another day, another post!!!!


Right I am tired now from this trip down memory lane - and now that I work and have entered the real world I need to sleep.

Adios