Four Points Hotel Santiago

... Santiago was not the most exciting, but definetely a very pleasant place to stay and we did a good job chilling out and preparing some home cooked dinners in our flat (and caught up on the key Warner Brother Channel programs, such as Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory). Harry Potter is awaiting us in New Zealand (amongst other things ..) and tonight we will board our 13 hour flight to our adventure down under! Zorb you then!

Ivo & Annemieke

... wir den ersten Tag mit Sightseeing verbracht hatten, entschlossen wir uns auch noch das Nachtleben von Santiago zu erkunden. Dies taten wir im Partybezirk von Santiago, Bellavista. Nach einigen Glaesern unseres bisher billigsten suedamerikanischeb Bieres (umgerechnet ca. 2 US Dollar pro Liter), zogen wir zusammen mit einem Einheimeischen von um die Haeuser. Seltsamerweise schien das billige Bier sowohl ...

... o-Macul, so the next day we woke up early to sort out when we were going. We manage to organize it for that same afternoon. The vine yard is beautiful, and massive. We were surprise to realize is in the middle of the city. We had first the normal tourist tour around the vine yard, where they showed us the different containers they used a 100 years ago and the ones that they use now. They told us all the history of the vine yard and that now is owned by the sixth ...

... but alas, Michael found the mall and we got a chance to relax with dinner and a movie (I LOVE reading the Spanish subtitles!!!) The next day, we walked around the city center, checking out lots of beautiful government buildings and Plaza de Armas, an incredibly huge square with a cathedral, trees, artists, lots of people, etc. By the time we had briefly explored several ...

... et Citroën aussi. Cela dit, Santiago n'est pas une ville très photogénique. Tout est mélangé, il n'y a pas vraiment d'unité, donc c'est difficile de prendre des photos intéressantes. En revanche elle est très vivante, grouille de monde, et c'est presque un niveau de vie européen en termes de ce qu'ont peut y acheter et y faire. J'aurais pu aller directement de Valparaíso à Puerto Montt sans repasser par Santiago, mais bon, Danna ...

After a fairly lengthy queuing process at the airport to leave Buenos Aires, we landed in Santiago, Chile at around lunchtime. Now for those of you who know my past history with missing and lost baggage, you will feel my anguish at the very unhappy news that my rucksack was not in Santiago when we landed ... as I was very mournfully filling out the paperwork, the LAN staff thought it might be worth a shot waiting for the next flight in ...

... up to my room (most hostels only allow check in at 2pm) so was able to sort things out and have a shower. I met up with Wes, a friend from Bolivia days, and another friend of his Kate. We had a great day just catching up on news from the past few months, wandering around the city and then partaking in a glass or two of vino. Wes was most obliging when we got ...

... on the way.

We crossed the Mapocho River and took the funicular up to Cerro San Cristobal. We enjoyed an ice cream in the park. We didn't go to the Zoo though everybody else seemed to be. We did spendt ages trying to take pictures of the snow covered Andes through the smog but they looked better through the human eye than the camera.

We had lunch in a new arcade/shopping centre which ...