La Chimba Hostel Santiago

The past weekend here I have been in Chileīs capital, Santiago. After spending a couple of 'muey tranquillo' semaņas a Playa Ritoque, itīs quite the culture shock to live the metropolitan, busy-bee lifestyle in a monstrous city like Santiago. The first day I was actually afraid to leave the hostel! Apart from braving the metro to buy a bus ticket to Mendoza, I didnīt venture out into the big city streets at all. In addition to having difficulties trying to adjust to urban life, Iīve also been...

Hello all!!! I hope that everyone is enjoying the weather and getting ready for election time!!! (Go Obama Go!) Chile has been a blast and it is insane that we are already flying to Argentina in the morning and that my time in South America is almost to an end. Santiago is a quirky city with lots of art ...especially cool grafitti art all over the streets that i took TONS of pics of...lots of coffee shops, pizzarias, great parks....a great place to hang out! I took daily strolls up to the San...

A short (18-hour) bus journey brought us to the town of Mendoza and the foothills of the Andes. We swapped for a less comfortable bus for a 5hr journey to cross over the Andes. What a trip! Climbing to a height of 4,000 metres with Mt.Aconcagua poking into the clouds, just another 3,000 snowy metres higher. Standing outside at the border was quite literally chilly, especially for Cath who was still in her flip flops. Amazingly a train track still exists across this pass, though in places it h...

The original plan for Santiago was to spend two weeks in separate hostels while we both went to Spanish classes (and because we needed a little break from each other after being together 24/7 for over 4 months). Well...it didn't quite happen like that. I probably should have listened to David at the start when he thought it wasn't the best idea in the world. I picked the short straw with the hostel I chose (even though David let me have first choice) and felt like I was back in a ****** unive...

In the words of the late, great food-dodger Karen Carpenter Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down. Fortunately it wasn't raining this Monday as I purchased my ticket to ride the bus to the airport in Auckland. I wasn't sure how long the flight to Santiago would take just that it's going to take some time (this time). I joined the check-in queue sandwiched between some kids who seemed intent on hurting each other and a woman who had a striking resemblance to professional nutter Courtney Lo...

Well Iīve made, Iīm now in South America. To be precise Iīm in the Chilean capital of Santiago. Chile is the most developed country in South America and the local language is Spanish, which I donīt speak a word of. My flight was very long and boring. I arrived early at the airport in Auckland and there werenīt many people queuing - empty flight I thought. Not a chance! The flight started in Sydney, so most of the people were already on the plane. The flight took just over ten hours, which I p...

The journey over the border was a stunning as it had been on the way over, although this time a managed to take slightly less photos through the window. We did seem to stop at a different building for passport control, which was slightly surprising, not that it bothered me too much. Once off the bus I got a taxi to Bellavista and La Chimba hostel. I didn't do much that night, other than chat to a few in the hostel and get takeaway pasta from the restaurant across the road. I did meet up with ...

Arrived into Santiago on the 16th of February - was going to be strange in a new place on my own for the first time on my travels- ended up staying in La Chimba youth hostel in Barrio Bellavista - the bohemian area of Santiago - After a few days mooching around I realised I would have to learn a bit of Spanish - so enrolled in a week long Spanish coarse - oh what fun that would be - before that I had a week to play with - A gang of us from the hostel headed to see Colo Colo play River Plate i...

"Santiago, officially Santiago de Chile , is the capital of Chile. It is situated at an elevation of 520 m (1700 ft) in the country's central valley. Although Santiago is the capital, the government meets in nearby Valparaiso. Approximately two decades of uninterrupted economic growth have transformed Santiago into one of Latin America 's most sophisticated metropolitan areas, with extensive suburban development, dozens of shopping malls, and impressive high-rise architecture. The city also b...

Ahh, we have arrived in easy going Chile now, and are both loving it. The hard work seems well behind us now. The local flight over was very easy work as well, with no queue whatsover for check in or security in a tiny little airport. The guy even let Shell go through with her bottle of water, and joked that she didnīt look dangerous. No many airport security guards have a sence of humour these days. Very refreshing.

The flight over, followed almost the same route over the Andes mounta...