Radisson Ciudad Empresarial Santiago

... of flats that would not be out of place in Eastern Europe. It has the most European feel of anywhere we have visited.

In our travels so far, nowhere we have been has held on to its Spanish eating customs, and meal times have been more North American, that is to say, early. Not so here, where the evening meal does not begin until 9.00pm (a time we are often politely expected to have vacated our table in Ecuador and Peru) and dining continues late into the ...

... lounge for a while eating the free food and drinking the free anything. Got to my gate waiting till most people boarded then got on the plane, to my surprise there was someone sitting in my seat, I signaled the flight attendant who discovered we both had the same seat number. Apparently there were about 12 of us with the same problem, I was last to be dealt with and stood like an idiot in the isle for about half an hour. Finally they upgraded the couple sitting in my seat...I was ...

... ones there and the guide was cool, and got to keep the tasting glasses which I am now carefully carrying round South America. We went out to Franklin, a suburb of the city, to a flea market. Emma suggested it to get us out of the house on a Saturday as we had pretty much run out of things to do and our flight wasnīt for a few more days yet. Problem was she hadnīt been there for a few years and it has now turned from a flea market into a massive scally market ...

... too much. He made a call and pulled over and then said he would be with us in 5 minutes. The guy came back and was saying how it's Chillean pesos and its different than dollars etc but I was having none of it. I pointed to the paper where it said the hostel could send a van but if you got a taxi don't pay more than 16,000 pesos. He tried fobbing me off and giving us back 10,000 each so I explained I was a free lance journalist for a travel ...

... with shirt and tie sitting in the elevator to get you to your floor) took us to the 6th floor nothing could prepare us for the AMAZING view from our rooms in the "Placa de Armas Hostel". Since a picture says more than a thousand words I'm going to stop on talking about the view since it amazed me so much, that I could go on and on and on ... v ...

... a layover in Santiago on my way to Mendoza. The view from Santiago airport is probably the worst in Chile, if not in entire South America, though it's not as depressing as the view from Lima airport unless you landed there at night. I was groggy after overnight flight from LA and ordered "some tea" in Spanish in the airport cafe. The waitress answered that I may be more specific with my request but I did not understand her really. The tea was served though somehow. On board I ...

... a food critics list of top Santiago restaurants. Europeo is supposedly the top restaurant in town, but I wasnīt able to make a reservation online - that left the choices between Puerto Fuy and Sukalde - I decided to go with Puerto Fuy because its cuisine was influenced by Ferran Adria, the leader of the molecular gastronomy movement (see blog entry entitled "We felt like judges on the Iron Chef!" http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog ...

... to the south ( Puerto Varas). In santiago chile things are way diferent than when i left, the economic situation of my fellow chileans is much better then what it used to be. Now days is not weird to see pimped out cars and all. 10 Years ago....you would not even dream about that. Other than that you see more "English" type media, and all of the consequences that globalizations brings along. On the way to santiago I met Jonas a ...

... will always be very special to us as the year of our wedding and the start of our great adventure.

We hope that the new year brings you all everything that you wish for and that it is as happy for you as 2007 has been for us.


Lots of love,


Al & Katie xx