Hotel del Patio Santiago

... its my friend's, friend's nephew named Ernesto. I was glad to get some free housing in Santiago as the hostels here are some of the most expensive in the country. I have been wandering the city for a week soaking in the history and culture of this capital city. I visited the art museums of course which featured some great works by Chilean artists like Matta. I also visited one of the three houses Pablo Neruda constructed. This one called "La Chascona" he built to hide away ...

... place.We trekked around & up a little hill to view a castle – the view of the Andes was unreal – got a few nice pics there. Walked half way round town after that, dropping into Joke shops & other Cafes recommended in the lonely Planet, highlight of the joke shop being the DIY Vasectomy!Skipped Museums luckily!The Cafe we stopped in, I managed to get Half a Chicken – couldn’t finish it. Then the guys stopped into this place and got the crazy cheese ...

... dinner we went out to a restaurant recommended by the book, for typical Chilean food, which meant a huge plate of chips, with steak, meat balls fried eggs and onions. So we went home with arteries slamming shut and literally struggled to keep ourselves awake till ten before falling asleep, to try to convert to Chile-time.

On Wednesday we had breakfast and then set out the Museo del Arte Precolumbino which was really great. It ...

... then meet back in reception just before 3pm. We also booked for the Chilean dinner at 7pm as we thought it would be a good chance to sample the local food and also mingle with some of the others in the hostel. It was only 4,000 clp (about £4) and the city tour was only 3.5 hours so we should be back just in time. I had a wander to the local mini mart and bought a large bread roll and a pack of cheese. I made a cheese butty for lunch but it was that big I kept ...

... amp; cableway for some great views over the city although smoggy. It is a easy city to get around & always felt safe.....but.....it didn't appear to have any real heart to it. We were amazed that cars stopped at crossings & people generally didn't bump into you as well as queued in an orderly fashion...made life more tolerable. Our last day was on a tour to Valparaiso area by the coast....a 10 hour day. The port is a UNESCO world ...

Today is the first day of classes after a long summer break. Although I was really excited to start last semester, I really wish I could keep working at the Casa de Guaguas-the home for babies-as much as I did during summer. Overall it was really hard work at points, but it was completely worth it. The last week I've been going in to work all day every day, which entails waking up at 6 to make the hour-journey to the Hogar, and ...

... us through the center of Santiago which was a nice drive. Jeanie and Monroe, like us, have spent time in Santiago before so we didn't need to do any sightseeing - and we headed over to see our friend Hamoody - who has the coffee shop that we frequented on one of our previous visits. He remembered us and we introduced Jeanie and Monroe to the wonderful cakes that Hamoody has - we had coffee - drinks and used the internet. Jeanie and I took a ...

You think you´re being clever saving a nights hostal fee but there ain´t no such thing as a free lunch. We got a night bus at 10.50pm, which meant leaving our hostal at 9.30am and spending the whole day outside in Mendoza. Which costs money. Then we saved some money to buy Liza a bracelet, a beautiful amethyst, which she promptly lost on the night bus, or ...

... came to nearly 25 quid!

I suspect that we were being ripped off, with some creative accounting, but neither of us could face the prospect of kicking off in Spanish. Plus we knew we were at about 20% brain capacity so we might have got the prices wrong or something.

The worst thing was that our stomachs must have still been full of pisco sours & beer, so we'd hardly touched our food. We thought we were hungry but ...