I stepped off the plane this morning into beautiful, sunny, and warm Santiago. Unfortunately, my bags were not so lucky. Our plane was delayed for almost 45 minutes in Detroit to be de-iced on the runway. I'm still not sure how I made my connection in Atlanta having lost most of my layover time to winter weather. I had to jog to the terminal and...

Flying into Santiago yesterday reminded me of Arizona - a country side devoid of just about anything! The city of Santiago, then reminded me a bit of Phoenix, except for all the massive mountains around the city as opposed to the mesas. After nearly 20 hours of travelling yesterday, I finally arrived in Chile with still half of Christmas left to...

Itīs Autumn here, all the trees are changing and itīs a nice refreshing change from the heat of the north which I was getting a bit flustered from in the end, with no airconditioning and long bus rides. We have had to get our thermals out but weīre still cold, and itīs only 20 degrees!! Great weather for drinking red wine though, and at a couple...

Still with the tour we spent two nights in San Pedro de Atacama before flying to the capital Santiago. San Pedro served its purpose - a place to recover after our journey across the salt plains and through the desert - but thatīs about all. It was full of tourists, dusty and expensive. Santiago on the other hand, was a proper capital city. We we...

History was written by assasins. Historians argue over the details, the hows and whys, and the economic reasons for social revolutions. But you get the point. Those who survive live to tell the tale. We`re familiar with these cases: --Salvador Allende is the popularly elected president of Chile. The CIA supports a coup which deposes Allende and ...

On my final day in Santiago I thought I should go check out some more of the sights. It was pouring with rain so I was grateful for the very easy to use Metro system. 1st stop was the Plaza de Armis - the central square. This is a lovely paved, tree lined square with benches & statues that I'm sure looks fantastic in the sunshine. The square con...

We survived our last long bus journey yesterday and arrived in Santiago following a 24 hour bus journey down from northern Chile. As per usual the bus broke down a couple of times en route, however we still managed to arrive on time, they definitely cater for that when working out the timing!! Unfortunately we are so limited for time that Chile ...

Day 236 - Santiago Our 'graduation' passed without a single hat being thrown in the air and if truth be told, I'm likely to miss the mental stimulation that learning Spanish has provided. Homework hasn't been the chore it was in my school days and I think this is as much down to the relevance of the subject as maturity. We'll look back on the we...