Hostal Forestal Santiago

The journey
Riding the bus from Mendoza, through the Andes, to Santiago is a great tourist attraction in itself. For that reason Jeremy and I took this bus during daylight hours. The mountaineos and changing scenery is just fantastic, and by the time we reached the border we were surrounded by snow - just the other side of the border is Portillo, one of the famous Chilean ski resorts.

The border crossing... whatever you do do not cross into Chile with fruits or vegetables, or be pre...

Friday 3rd April - Tuesday 7th April I took a calculated risk upon our arrival to Santiago, by booking a flight north to Antofagasta (to get to San Pedro, our next destination), rather than buss-ing it all the way, shaving off an 18-hour bus journey and buying time for Angelaīs leg to heal. Otherwise Santiago was intended to be a pit-stop for us. Weīd done well with our choice of hostal. It was called Forestal, and was well-located right next to the thriving Bella Vista, the central focus for...

We said goodbye to our GAP friends on Sunday, December 16 after arriving in sunny Santiago. Our last excursion was to the Concha y Toro winery, which was really beautiful but perhaps a bit stingy on the wine tasting... But we did get to learn all about the Devilīs Cellar (Casillero del Diablo). Back when the winery started, bottles were mysteriously disappearing from the cellar so a rumor was started that the devil lived there and suddenly the thieves stopped sneaking off with the wine. So t...

Well, got bored of Auckland. Went up the Sky Tower which had some amazing views despite the bad weather. The tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. After that figured there wasn't really anything else to do in the town and that a tour up to the very north wasn't worth it seeing as it was pouring with rain and all there is up there is a treee that's got something to do with the Mauri culture. So changed my flight date and now I'm in Santiago.

Been here a couple of days now and i...

Well, got bored of Auckland. Went up the Sky Tower which had some amazing views despite the bad weather. The tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. After that figured there wasn't really anything else to do in the town and that a tour up to the very north wasn't worth it seeing as it was pouring with rain and all there is up there is a treee that's got something to do with the Mauri culture. So changed my flight date and now I'm in Santiago. Been here a couple of days now and its fanta...

May 16th to 20th, 2007 Day 1 Hola Gente (Hello People), Well the time to travel has finally arrived, hooray! First of all I would like to say thanks to all those people that have made my last few months in Australia so enjoyable. But particular thanks go to my Sherwood family (Dave and Lisa) who took me in when I got evicted from the 'Grove, muchas gracias. The travelling started out fairly early on Wednesday May 16th, 2007. I was lucky enough to catch the Sherwood courtesy bus (Dave's car) a...

Santiago itsellf, despite being surrounded by 5,000 metre peaks, is remarkably flat with lots of open spaces making it good for walking, running and cycling. The main plaza is huge, the cathedral adorns one end, which was lovely inside, lots of state buildings one the other sides and numerous people undertaking public speaking. There was also a fair number of street performers working around the many benches that line the square where you can stop, rest and watch the world go by. We decided t...

Well after my last night out in BA the shock of having to get up at 9:30 to catch a taxi to the airport was massive. I made it there on time and then the fun South American system of queue to get your boarding pass then queue again to get a stamp to say it incuded airport tax then queue again to get throug passport control then queue again to subit some more paper work started.. They do love paperwork in South America..

Even buying a coke involves asking for it then getting a recipt t...

So after an uneventful redeye flight, I arrived in Santiago at 8:25
this morning. When I say uneventful, I mean the flight itself was fine
but there was a baby crying the entire flight in the row behind me.
However, seeing the Andes Mountains flying in at dawn more than made up
for it!

Either way, I was too excited to be tired this morning so after a quick
shower, headed out to explore the city and eat! In just under 4 hours,
I managed to check out the main plaza (Pla...

After a very lovely 2 hour border crossing I arrived at Santiago de Chile. Because I didnīt know where to stay I decided to try one of the Che Lagarto chain hostels in this capitol. To my horror I discovered this hostel was filled with Brazilians (I donīt like to be confronted with to many of my nationalities unless in country of origin i.e. Holland or Brazil). Because of this and the quietness of the hostel I decided to move quickly to Hostel Forestal where the most laidback and friendliest ...