Country: Chile.
City: Santiago.
Currency: 1Euro = 706 Chile Pesos.
Elevation: 520m / 1706ft

Arrival Date: Monday Nov 4th. Date: Tuesday the 5th, 2pm

Well that was Rio de Janeiro!! I really learned a lot in those short few days that I spent there and Really put them into practice when getting to Santiago!!

I got to the airport and managed not to lose any tickets this time!! All´s good and then while on the plane there were a load of Australian surfer champions and this famous Spanish band too!! So everyone was getting their photos taken with the band so I thought well I will too!! :-) So I got my picture taken with the lead singer of this band "Active something or other" Hey they´re famous in Spain!! Aparently!! :-| And I got a kiss from him too so it was all good!

Finally after another stop over in Sao Paulo we got to Santiago!! Woo Hooo And the view of the Andes on the way was just spectacular!! So I hopped of the plane and headed straight for the ATM to get some local currency (if I could find it), ignoring EVERY TAXI driver along the way!! I had to ask a woman at a car rental place where the "bonco" was and she probably thought I wanted to ´bonk her´ for a second with the blank look on her face but then pointed out the ATM when I flashed her....my bank card!! ;-)

Pesos in hand it was straight to the ´Centropuerto´ or the bus to the city centre!! I got my $1 ticket and off we went!! (slightly cheaper then the taxi I took from the airport in Rio!!) ahem! well you live and learn! So we got the last stop ´Los Hereos´ where I hoped to walk three blocks to the Hostel that I was praying had a spare bed for me!!

So after a brisk walk with all my bags (it was kinda dark at 9.30pm) I made it to the gates of the hostel and the nice man let me in and then proceeded to make fun of me by pretending not to speak English watch me squirm trying to explain in crap Spanish that I really needed to stay here for the night!! The Fecker!!! then ´Cerrar´ (thats his name) burst out laughing and said in English better than mine ´so how many nights would you like to stay?´ Ggrrrr Ah well he was really nice to me after that and gave me a room all to myself for the night!! So I´m all settled in!!

Here´s a Map of Santiago in case you´re interested.

I got a fair amount of sleep and had a nice shower this morning before setting off for a walk about Santiago city centre. The Sun is just bursting out of the sky and what strikes me about Santiago is how extremely religious it is and how many churches there are here. Every doorway even looks like the entrance to a church!! But it feels a lot safer here or maybe I´m just settling in a bit better now... The people are really friendly and on my stroll into the Palace de la Moneda where the President of Chile works but no longer resides!! (useful information for you) I chatted with one of the Many Police men ´Robierto´ was his name.

So in my broken Spanish and his broken English we had an interesting but Very nice chat indeed!! He told me some facts about the Palace and gave me some advice on changing money inside the bank only!! And not to wear any jewelery out either! What a nice police man! He asked about my trip so I explained it all and he was amazed that I was doing it all alone! Maybe thats why he gave me the sound advice! So he gave me some tips on where to go next and after I got a picture with him off I went to the Cathedral Metropolitana!

This is a beautiful Cathedral and as it was 1 o´clock I didnt expect many people to be there but mass was on and there were lots of people in there, business men and women, older people , young people!! all sorts! It was funny cos outside it´s kinda like a Chilean New York with lots of business people coming and going and then inside the church is very quiet and relaxed and you really see how religious people of all ages are here.

There is one major difference though that I noticed. That is that they don´t change at all once they enter the church, they act exactly the same but still have a lot of respect. I´ll explain, for instance they still keep their mobiles on during mass, they park their bikes Inside at the side of the church, they eat ice creams, pick their lottery numbers adn couples can still hold hands and kiss and cuddle before sitting down to pray. It seems a lot more relaxed and orientated towards real life here than in the mass you would go to in Dublin. I like it here! ;-) I´m off to climb another 650m high mountain, later....

Date: Wednesday the 6th, 10pm

Well I made it to the top of the Cerra Santa Lucia yesterday which is like a huge mountain stuck in the middle of the city. It`s totally different world from the city and the gardens along the walk/climb to the top are just beautiful!! The views from the top cover the entire city on a clear day which I had!! Then in the very far distance are the breath taking Andes with white snow capped peaks!! It`s just amazing!! I didn`t take one bus all day and walked around for about 7 hrs all day before heading back to the hostel for a very interesting night indeed!! But I figured it`d be good practice for the 4000m high trek in Peru! ;-) Anyway me and a few of the girls Katie and Vicky from England and Dave from Oz all headed out to a supposed salsa bar that was closed so we ventured elsewhere to another bar and had a few drinks and a dance with the locals til the wee hours!! Great fun!! I`ll keep the full story for another time ok Katie!!! heheeee

Anyway this morning (wednesday) it was a bit cloudy so I was gonna go to a few museums only as a few of us were sitting about after breakfast today and another few guys I met here John from Birmingham and Fred (for short) from Italy suggested we go to a "local" vineyard to take a tour... hmmm Museums...or wine tasting.... So.. we were about to book the tour (weeelll what did you expect! hehee) ....in the hostel office for $24 only it was booked out so we found the name of another vineyard "Vino Santa Rita" I think thats what it was called...was it John??.. I cant remember but it was great!! ...heheheeee....and decided we`d make our own way there and just take a tour when we got there! Easier said than done though!!

After a train journey to the end of the Underground Line 2 we hopped on the 56 bus for like and hour and a half or something mad like that to the very edge of the countryside and got dropped off at the gates of this vineyard where we were told by the guards that the it was closed today due to a conference of business men being in there for the day. But said that we could walk up to the restaurant to have a look if we liked....well after going all that way why not!

It was lucky we did cos on the way we bumped into the owner who asked us what we wanted as we didn`t exactly look like Chilean business men!! so when we mentioned that we wanted to do the tour but that we couldn`t he said No No ...Come In!! I`ll organise a tour for you!! ... Super!! So we ended up with a personal tour just the three of us for only $4 and about 50cent for the bus and train out there!! The guide was really nice and she explained every single part of the wine making process down to the fact that when the barrels are made the strips of wood are curved together by burning the same wood inside the barrel at a specific temperature for specific types of wines!!

Oh there was soo much information I cant write it all down but I was very impressed that there are sooo many specific little things that go into making just one bottle of wine!! I`ll never look at wine in the same way again and I might just be a bit more picky about the type of wine I drink too!! Oh and we had the most beautiful bottle of Chardonnay after the tour too!! Wow ...and you should have seen this scenery here too!! Oh my god it was truely beautiful!! just amazing! After sipping our wine served in the 19th century gardens with the sun beaming down and the fountains trickling water the guide said that we could get the workers bus back to Santiago with her if we wanted!! SWEET!! it dropped us practically to our door!! what a great day! We bumped into Ozzy Dave from last night at the door to the hostel and went to have dinner and drinks!!

So thats all for now, I just cant explain how much fun everything is and every day theres somethng else happening more people to meet and hang out with, Share stories of places and information on what to do or not to do!! Im gonna meet up with John to do the Inca trail too along with another mate of his cos we`ll all be there about the same time and he`s doing Pucon first when Im in Argentina next week!! ahhh it´s all good and i`m spending a lot less money than I had budgeted for at the moment so "I`m on Top of the World baby!!" heheeee Tomorrow I`m gonna head to the beach towns of Vino del Mar and Valpariso for two days before coming back to Santiago for one last night and then over to Argentina!! It´s great cos i can leave half ..well almost all i reckon..of my stuff here in the hostel for 60cent a day and pick it up when I get back!!

ok enough for now I`m off back to the hostel to chill in chile. I only have one complaint so far and thats that i cant get to sleep very well at night cos my brain just wont switch off!! It´s all too exciting remembering things that you did all day!! And the things you´ll do tomorrow!! heheheeeee It`s mad!! I guess that`s not really a valid complaint so I`m outa here!! buenos noches de Chile!!

Date: Friday the 8th, 7pm

Check out some of the pictures on this site to see some of the places I´ve seen!! Only Santiago and Valpariso though, there´s lots more there that I haven´t managed to see! I´ll just have to come back eh!

So I made it out to Vina del Mar on Thursday and had a really nice 2 hour bus journey out for about 7 dollars return. The bus was sooo comfortable and the scenery was really beautiful and the sun was just blasting down too!! and I was headed for the beach!! Woo hooo... So i got to Valpariso and walked down to the train station and hopped on the dingiest mankiest old train with only two carriages to Vina del Mar where I checked into the hotel Capric, which was recommended at the santiago hostel. It was the same price to stay there about $7 with breakfast!! pretty cool!

It was just as well cos after a put my bags in my room I took a stroll to the breakfast room and met David from London and Shannon from Tahoe!! Then Marie Anna from Brazil too...we got chatting as you do and ended up hanging out for the night and going out for a really nice dinner!! I tried the Congrio for the first time and it was really yummy!! I managed to show my expertise from the visit to the vineyard the day before and we got some of the Vino de Santa Rita too!! I think I´ve converted Shannon from her beer to this wine now! heheheee but it was sooo chaep I couldn´t resist at $2 for 1.5litres!!! of quality wine too!! Where else would you get it eh!!

Then today Friday we all had breakfast and did the whole cultural tour of the town and managed to walk into one of the large parks where they had a huge stadium type thingy and all these school kids performing on stage. So we sat down and watched a few, one of the guys sang a song in Spanish that I used to dance salsa to in Dublin (only a bit slower) so that was funny when I started singing along the guys were amazed! heheee We walked around the town and also went to the Palicio Rioja which is a palace where Mr. Rioja and his family used to live. I wont go into the entire story but all the furniture and that was original and we had to wear these really funny slippers over our sandals in order to walk about the palace!! heheeee I think I cried it was that funny! the tour guide wasnt impressed!!

Then to finish off our nice tour of the town we headed to the beach to sit in the sun!! ahh it´s a hard life!! So tonight seeing as there were no single rooms left, myself Dave and Shannon have moved into a triple room before we all go back to Santiago tomorrow!! They´re gonna come and stay in my hostel for the night too before we all go our seperate ways!! how cool is it that you can just meet people one day and then move in with them the next...i dont know anywhere or any other situation in the world where you can do that without anyone being the least bit bothered excpet while you´re back packing!! and as Shannon would say "It´s totally Awesome!!" heheee

So I´m off to get myself some cheap dinner with the guys now...But it wont be the last I´ll see of Shannon cos she invited me up to Tahoe when I´m in San Fancisco!! I´m now going to go and stay with her for a few days and do some skiing in February!! How cool is that!! she´s a really cool girl and we had such a laugh last night when we were all out!! So that´s more or less it for now, I have a bit of a cold but thanks to Doctor Liz´s advice tonight and her kind present of "drugs" before i left I can take some to get better as soon as I get back to Santaigo tomorrow!! So that´s it for now...I´ll leave one side of South America and head back over to the other side on Sunday!!! Ciao!!

Here are the photos!!

(Back to my Itinerary.)