Plaza de Armas Hostel Santiago

South America, Santiago, Chile - a whole new continent, country and city to go at! We set off from our hostel in New Zealand at one o´clock in the afternoon on 1 May and, thanks to the International Date Line, arrived in Santiago at twelve in the afternoon on the same day. Weird, eh? The flight was uneventful, with Em snatching bits of fitful sleep whilst I listened to a Spanish tutorial on th´iPod in anticipation of an impending language barrier. We touched down, passed customs and wandered ...

We got back to Santiago from Easter Island and made our way back to the nice place we stayed at before; unfortunately we weren´t to be upgraded again so had to settle for a normal room with a shared balcony - boo! We soon headed out for provisions and wandered aimlessly round a supermarket for half an hour before being hailed at the till. "You from England by any chance?" "Umm, yep - how did you guess?" This was our first introduction to Luke, a bassoonist from Northenden (just outside Manche...

We flew from Quito to Santiago, arriving in Santiago early on 10th August, leaving again on 12th August for Brazil. Santiago is a modern, clean city with the beautiful snow capped Andes mountains on its doorstep, which you can see from all around the city. (Unfortunately, we´ve got a problem with one of our camera´s memory cards at the moment, so we can´t show you our photos......the photos below have been borrowed from the internet!). On Day One, we took a tour bus around the city, stopping ...

After our time in Easter Island we spent our final 3 days in South America in the town of Valparaiso and the city of Santiago.

Santiago and Valparaiso were additions to our initial itinerary – when we were first planning this trip our plans were to continue westwards from Easter Island onto Tahiti and then westwards again to Australia. Just before we paid for our flights British Airways decided to stop allowing this meaning we had to return to mainland South America, and then fly...

I thought I would write this entry in the style of Dick Brown (a former EDS CEO who was constantly on the private jet ,busy ensuring his $30 million pay off whilst grinding the company to nothing). You find me writing this update on a coach heading into the Andes mountain ranges, leaving Mendoza towards Santiago de Chile. A clear blue sky is punctuated only by jagged snow capped peaks stretching as far as the eye can see, and the sound of the gentle whirr of the coach is punctuated only by so...

Hola from Chile.... I thoroughly enjoy my flight over to Chile. I sit next to a lovely Chilean man whom i communicate with through his electronic Spanish-English translator. I watch a few good movies and even manage to get a few hours of kip. Expecting an emotional reunion after 3 months away, i hurry out to arrivals to meet Simon. There he is in the terminal entrance, loaded up like a packhorse with all the items i have requested from home. As i make my way towards him, eyes welling up with ...

We meet Madame as arranged (me and Simon have got to calling every women we meet madame, if we don't know/can't pronounce their name). She looks upset and confesses that she lost her job the night before. Madame takes us to the Cathedral, another church, the historic post office (the first in Chile) and the presidents house. the president of Chile is a lady. She is not well liked amongst Chileans (according to Madame) and the building is heavily guarded. We then go to the picturesque hill in ...

Hello all, after traveling back from Iguazu we crossed the border between Mendoza (Argentina) and Santiago (Chile). This took about 7 hours cuz they stopped us for about 2 hours at the border to check our bags for... the feared BANANA or any other fruit. Chilean police seem to be more preoccupied about fruit than drugs or terrorists. In Santiago we arrived at the hotel where Rodrigo and Daniel worked (the guys we had a picnic with in Mendoza). We got a beautiful appartment here where we staye...

After our delay in Sydney we finally arrived, quite exhausted in Santiago. Having to spend an unexpected night in Sydney due to the dust storm was not the greatest way to start out trip.

The hostel has a great view of the Plaza from our room on the 6th floor, seems to be heaps going on down there.

Bit scared to wander too far so grateful all the blocks are easy to get around.