Director Santiago

... up, I promise) and Talampaya. Beautiful desertscapes, very cool wildlife, and fantastic weather made it a great couple of days.

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 ...

... things to note: we were on national television on the first day we ventured out of our appartment, we (by now of course Chilean celebrities) also went on a trip to the 2 nearby cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar and we went skiing for a bit. We had also planned to do a wine tour, but after discovering we would only get to taste 1 or 2 wines if we took a full day excursion, we thought we might as well spend the same amount of dollars on a lunch in ...

We awoke to find it was 3pm in the afternoon, but this wasn't too much of a surprise as we'd only gone to bed at 6am and the room didn't allow much daylight in.

We went out for "breakfast" at 5pm with the Kiwi girls but left the Mexican behind as he was ...

... test and we failed miserably but a smile and a bit of charades can get you a long way! Our hostel in Santiago was excellent just what we needed to recover from the flight, very chilled out. That night we went out to the Barrio Brazil where Matt found his culinary match Chorillinos chips, sausage, steak, chicken and onions topped off by a fried egg - the Chillians love their fast food. We found it hard over the next few days to adjust to the time change we ...

... it in Spanish though! I went in to Ignecio Catedral. All my info is deciphered from Spanish signs but I think the Catedral was built in 1542 and it was burnt out in 18-something and has been rebuilt. It is pretty crazy inside with sculpture and paint on the ceiling, no wonder the general populace was so willing to believe in God! There was actually a service going on while I was in there, they were passing the money ...

... the amount of earthquakes they have, the amount of history that Santiago stays with is very little. Our main goal was to get to the central market. The guy from the hostel told us that was the best and cheapest place to find seafood and we were starving so we head there on quite a rush. It was crazy! Loads of restaurants and shops selling all kinds of fish, massive mussels, calamari, king prawns, and much more. We sat at a little restaurante, that if they hadnt ...

... concierge/security) about apartments that were for rent... the conversations were pretty funny in our ridiculously broken Spanish at first, but we eventually got the hang of what we needed to ask and what words we should be using... Basically, the concierge would give us the name and phone number of the apartment owner, then we would call them and enter into very awkward conversations... it was pretty hilarious ...

Ajourd'hui rien de special de prevu. Nous partons le soir pour La Serena au nord et avant cela nous passons quleques derniers monments avec Liberty et Nelson. Nous nous retrouvons pour prendre un cafe puis nous allons voir le film sur le Che, du meme nom. Je ne comprend pas tout mais tres ...

... we are at our Hostel in Santiago!! Havn't even seen the room yet too ealry to check in but Charles is making eggs and pancakes so it looks like we willl be well looked after!! Pretty tired at the moment didnt get much sleep on the plane so its time for a nap. nothing else to report just that we're safe and sound! lots of love Kate and Mike

Stopped over in bus stop too and from Pichilemu...gave city stay a miss as it didnt seem that appealing with alot of smog about. The road from Santiago to Mendoza was amazing...passing though a high andes range...roads were very steap and windy....highest moutain on view was at 6700m!