Apart Hotel Diego De Almagro Santiago

... up, I promise) and Talampaya. Beautiful desertscapes, very cool wildlife, and fantastic weather made it a great couple of days. <br><br>Mendoza was somewhere I felt I could spend a lot of time just relaxing, without the intensity that you find elsewhere. But, time being its usual self, we had to move on into Chile. The border crossing was quite comical, the customs officials being obsessed with fruit. "Lemons, Sir? Is that a ...

we arrived in santiago mid afternoon, and stayed in the barrio of bellevista. it was right next to the zoo and it was saturday and there were tons of people walking around and vendors on the street and people sitting outside(although it was still freezing for us) and drinking beer....it was different from the santiago i expected because it was really a nice area and i felt very safe and in general it was a very good atmosphere. we just walked around a ...

... to please us. At Franklin´s, it was the other way around. Without even realizing it, we ended up being the one´s who were trying to gain his approval. It never felt uncomfortable, but since it was his home as well as his job, the entire place had a familial feel where he was the head of the household and all of his guests were his children sort of living under ¨dad´s rules¨. The environment was very conducive to meeting people. We met some kids from ...

... too much. He made a call and pulled over and then said he would be with us in 5 minutes. The guy came back and was saying how it's Chillean pesos and its different than dollars etc but I was having none of it. I pointed to the paper where it said the hostel could send a van but if you got a taxi don't pay more than 16,000 pesos. He tried fobbing me off and giving us back 10,000 each so I explained I was a free lance journalist for a travel ...

... the use of long staircases or, preferable, little "ascensors" (elevators) to get around the city. That is the main touristic draw of the city. We were rather unimpressed by the city, and alarmed by how dirty and crime ridden it was. Multiple local store owners came out to warn us about local kids stealing cameras and bags, and two girls at our hostel got mugged. We stayed at a hostel called Millhouse, illustrating the Simpson ...

... well *s Chile *nd Peru in gener*l). S*nti*go essenti*lly seems like * glob*l, modern city with plenty of good infr*structure th*t m*n*ges to ret*in its coloni*l ch*rm where*s Lim* is ch*otic *nd disorderly despite its rich coloni*l herit*ge, *nd outside of the Pl*z* de Arm*s *nd some of the surrounding blocks, is not very ple*s*nt to w*lk *round. There´s definitely less t*xis (the D*ewoos th*t h*ve long surp*ssed their shelf life) here th*n in Lim* *s well...

... and Valentina (the receptionists) were very welcoming and the whole atmosphere of the hostel was very familiar ... - On this weekend there was a big barbeque planned on the balcony of the hostel that we gladly registered to (but more on that later) ... <br><br><br><br><br><br> After a quick cold shower (that i needed quite badly after nearly 30 ...

... a layover in Santiago on my way to Mendoza. The view from Santiago airport is probably the worst in Chile, if not in entire South America, though it's not as depressing as the view from Lima airport unless you landed there at night. I was groggy after overnight flight from LA and ordered "some tea" in Spanish in the airport cafe. The waitress answered that I may be more specific with my request but I did not understand her really. The tea was served though somehow. On board I ...

... five or six wines along with some delicious cheese and crackers. Truthfully, I didn´t find all the wines that great, but I did buy a bottle of rose that I liked. I´d rather buy it from a little guy that is struggling to keep up with the giants like Concha y Toro - plus, you can get Concha y Toro anywhere in North America, whereas wine from this place probably can´t be found outside of Chile. Back to Santiago, where I picked up my ...

... today, so we might have to sack that off. <br><br>So today's entry will therefore be short and sweet as we'll do very little of interest to ourselves, let alone anyone else. <br><br>Katie eventually surfaced at 8pm, a very impressive 18 HOURS after going to bed last night, so I struck while the iron was hot and dragged her out for dinner. <br><br>We walked over to an area called Bella Vista, which I recognised from our drunken ...