Plaza El Bosque Park & Suites Santiago

... br><br>We also came across human parking meters. Yes, thats right. Santiago pays men to sit by the side of the road and if you park in the street you have to pay him a set fee. Same thing as a regular parking meter, but its some poor schmuck who has to sit outside on the curb ALL DAY! They do not even get a chair. Some of the lucky ones have plastic buckets to sit on...<br><br>Anyway, aside from these funny observations we have done some sightseeing. We walked the ...

... in 1540, naming the town Santiago, and from this place the city grew. Besides nice views across the tops of the surrounding buildings, it has some Moorish fountains in a park that is littered by young locals intertwined gumsucking. We had to step over the bodies on our way out.<br><br>We enjoyed our brief visit to Santiago and enjoyed the company of Lauren and her friends. We wrapped it up with a very pleasant birthday dinner for James (where were your cards????).

Leaving Chile represents a major part of our journey &#8211; the end of South America after some 5 months. South America has turned out to be a real adventure &#8211; before we came here we didn't know what to expect and each part of the journey has been an absolute treat, each country very different however completely enthralling and full of experiences and memories to last a life time.<br><br>The biggest surprise has been the size of ...

... were mountains surrounding the whole city after 2 days here when the smog lifted, briefly. Our hotel is lovely though and the wine and beer is cheap so we can't complain. Chilean time definitely is something else I would have to say-the place doesn't really get going until after 11am, more like 12pm really. Then they have a siesta about 2 hours later. Love it:-) oh and they have lots of sushi restaurants which don't sell fried cheese or fried meat:-) I suppose for ...

... gained a taste for the Andrews flavour of entertainment, as my case of local Escudo was summarily pounced upon, devoured and then rearranged in a less-than-ordely fashion in a wheely bin close by. With every can my Spanish grew more confident and wildly inaccurate, verging on ridiculous, thereby inciting a torrent of laughter for all the wrong reasons. It was a measure of how little my Latino tongue had progressed on this trip, but also how ...

... experience, eugh... Apart from partying, I was able to collect my socks from the post office (long story - suffice to say that I feel slightly guilty about the amount of airmiles that they have clocked up in arriving from New Zealand to Santiago via Ireland. They're quality socks though!). Our only other achievement in our two days in Santiago was reaching the top of Cerro ...

... pass the time. So did Mac like Santiago? is was ok, not much to see and the food had little character to it. They had the "Pent House" room down a locked corridor in the hostel which kept the unwashed out which was good. It is odd but very few people speak English here, it was easier to communicate in the Far East. Ok yes speaking Spanish would help and Mac has a book with him, he knows how to ask for seats 4a and 4b on an aeroplane! Mac

... XXV - I - MMIX Avui hem pogut dormir més bé ja que ha refrescat més. El malestar continua al matí però hem de marxar avui perquè el vol cap a Nova Zelanda és dimarts, per tant val més estar un dia abans mínim a Santiago, per si de cas. Doncs, creuem dits perquè tot vagi bé i anem a la Terminal de busos. Comencem bé, el bus va en retard, 30 minuts. Creuarem els Andes. És un paisatge molt bonic. Just al punt més elevat hi ha la frontera, El Paso Los Libertadores. Tenim ...

I've finally landed in South America! Being a kiwi here is great because we don't have to pay a visa reciprocity fee like the Aussies, Americans and Canadians (USD35-50 depending on the country). On the flight over I sat next to a Kiwi-Columbian who described Santiago as 'not like Auckland, more like Hamilton' and on first impressions she's right ...

... this) absolutely all over the place, so getting onto a minibus proved a bit of a struggle because we were both completely monged. <br><br>We hadn't got any Chilean currency before leaving NZ, so I went looking for an ATM. My brain seemed to be working very slowly, but eventually I found one upstairs at the opposite end of the ...