Sheraton Santiago Hotel and Convention Center

... On several occasions, people have come up to us to warn us on putting our cameras away for fear of it being swiped. I can't get over how nice Chileans are- a sales woman in a wine store not gave us advice and a detailed route of all the major wineries in Southern Chile but she also gave us her personal cell number in case we needed her advice while we were there. She said she studied on scholarship to the ...

... decided to tag along. It seemed easier to use someone else's enthusiasm rather than struggle to find our own. The city turned out to be a little disappointing, but we still got a good walk and a ride on a funicular railway. That night we planned to go out with the hostel owner to a local club, Blondies, apparently a chain of properties all over Chile. The club only started at 1am, so until then we drank and chatted, eventually reaching the club ...

... at close to $60 compared to the 380 pesos (just over a dollar) per subway ride. First up we explored the Bella Vista a gorgeous area which is filled with lots of lovely cafes and market stalls, which leads to San Cristobel where a statue of Mary overlooks Santiago. It was very beautiful, but what we found the most fascinating was the little area around the corner where there were literally hundreds of messages left to the Virgin Mary asking ...

... see why it gets mediocre reviews. Valparaiso, on the other hand, is an old historic Port city closeby (2 hours by bus) which does have its own unique vibe. Its a pretty cool, chilled out place with beautiful port views out on to the ocean. Place is built on the sides of hills with all these ascensors or elevators to take you up the sides of these hills to your destination. They are certainly unique and give the place something you ...

... bit embarrassed, saying that this was the first time she had heard something like this. That very humble attitude is also quite common in Spain, and like I've said many times before, there is nothing more attractive than a woman who has no idea how beautiful she is. Again, none of it was a line (though had she responded with "Oh, I am so flattered! Let's have drinks later!", I definitely would not have refused ...), it was all ...

... 8:00 on a Thursday evening is a popular time for an Urgent care, so I had to wait for 30 minutes to get the paperwork to fill out, and an additional 3 hours after I had filled it out before I was seen. Finally I heard my name called over the loudspeaker to go in the back, and a med student spent 5 minutes talking to me and then whipped out some diagnosis. She gave me a prescription for some anti-biotic and said that I had some bacterial thing from the water in Peru ...