La Sebastiana Apart Hotel Santiago

... far better wine than the big winery we visited earlier, and we got to taste 7 bottles of wine... Fantasic.<br><br>It was a good way to meet our new tour group, most of us were drunk by 11.30 in the morning. Needed to sober up though as we have a night bus to Pucon, we´re sad to leave Santiago as we both really enjoyed the place and wouldn´t mind coming back some day, should we get the chance.<br><br>Blog you later<br><br>Mark and Kate<br><br>

... the sights of this splendid city. Santiago is the political, economic and financial capital of Chile and stands in a wide plain with the magnificent chain of the Andes in full view &#8211; pollution permitting. The city is a modern commercial capital, full of skyscrapers (it boasts the tallest building in South America), bustle, noise and traffic, and a metro, which we became very adept at using. The buildings style a mixture of Spanish and German with some large ...

... windy little staircases. The view from the top wasn't too great, due to the haze of the city, so it was more about the enjoyment of the clmb than anything else, but there were some beautiful gateways and old city walls on the way up.<br><br> In the evening we just chilled out and had yoghurt and fruit and crackers in our hostel for tea while chatting and hanging out in the lounge.<br><br>Love to everybody at home....love love love xxx

... Booked tickets to Mendoza in Argentina - we were going to spend longer going to the chile coast but me and anna will do this on the return trip. So up over the Andes tomorrow! Went up one of the small mountain-hills in santiago, a castle monuent where the spanish first claimed santiago. they would have had a better view of the mountains i'm guessing. Walked through the university and talked to a university student ...

... ISA kept us very busy though, going from orientation to touring around the city almost consistently with very little down time. I went to lots of neat places one being the place where the President of Chile ( a women) lives. Similar to the White House it was a very long tour after a very long night. The next day they took us to visit a vineyard and then the old house of Pablo Neruda, a famous poet of Chile ...

... specialising in seafood and steak and you can take any bottle of wine you like to them, and just pay a small bit for the corkage, so we treated ourselves and blew the budget and took one of our 4 pound bottles with us. We have now returned to Santiago, back over the amazing route - although the Chilean customs are a lot stricter about what you bring in (no fruit, seeds, meat, cheese, etc), its on a par with smuggling heroin if you are caught with something ...

... We got ourselves a double room (with shared bathroom facilities), with a balcony view as well. The hostel itself has loads of outdoor courtyards....inside the building! Weird. It also has a fantastic back garden area that has a small swimming pool and a poolside bar! There is also free internet here. It's a really nice place. First thing I did was sample one of the local beers "Escudor", which was only 60p! We had a walk to the nearby supermarket (even ...

... We walked back and it was still surprisingly hot - unlike the chilly evenings I experienced in La Serena, and its environs. Martin is from Buenos Aires, and we discussed Argentina - he mentioned that Cordoba is renowned for having the most beautiful women in all the country. I laughed because they say the same thing in Spain, which also has a city named Cordoba. Martin laughed how typical it was of guys - within 5 minutes of talking, the subject ...

... she really enjoyed the views over the city and harbour. <br><br> <br><br> <br><br>We also had a totally different perspective of a bungy jump, this time seeing in from above rather than below! Fair play to them, I bet it's an amazing feeling leaping off. <br><br> <br><br>We also saw a couple of very brave people walk around the ...

... benefit), and then we went up to Kaikoura to go whale watching,<br>which i ahd to wait for 5days until the sea was calm, enough for me to<br>go out.<br><br>We had to go back to christschurch to pick up the campervan after<br>this, and we head straight back into the southern alps. Up there we<br>visited lake tekapo and lake pukaki, and then up to mount cook which<br>was really good and lots of snow.