Tulip Inn Presidente Santiago

... to be accused of outrageousness and thrown into prison - or at least that's how it felt. The German couple informed us that if we failed to declare so much as an apple or a small piece of cheese, which apparently pose enormous bio-hazardous threats, we'd be at risk of a $200 fine. Not knowing the language made the whole experience a lot more intimidating - probably more so than it should have been. <br><br>Passed the border we began to descend past more ...

Its a shame that my last stop on my trip was the most expensive country. Everyone ***** on Chile. Its a fact. They say Chile has no culture and that its just a copy of Argentina. Also the three border countries of Chile have traditional rivalries with the country. Peru because apparently Chile "stole" their copper reserves waaaaay back in the 1800s when copper was worthless so I dunno if stole is the best word. More like Chile won an arid, at that time worthless piece of land ...

... FuBball and more drinking games with a few random people in there &#8211; good craic but I was knackered after all the travel so I noticed Fitzy had snook off so I decided I will sneak out out about 2am which wasn&#8217;t too bad I thought!<br><br>2nd July<br><br>Got up the next morning early enough &amp; went and got food with Fitzy &amp; Fran, the 2 lads were in tatters from the night before, they stayed up til about 6 &amp; half 6!We were deciding at brekkie what we wanted to sort out ...

... of every imaginable sea creature for the restaurateurs to come make their daily purchases.<br><br>We hiked around the city for a bit, stopping briefly at Pablo Neruda´s summer home on the hillside. We decided not to go in because it didn´t seem worth the admission price, but we were able to enjoy a great view of the city from the patio. We then made our way down to the Puerto Viejo (old city port) to have a feast of a lunch in a cool restaurant near the ...

... us. About half way up, our lungs started to burn like we've never felt before (though similar to some 5 peaks races!), and by the time we reached the top, we were both sure our lungs were bleeding as we gasped for air and coughed and sputtered. But we made it, and it was worth it. We watched the sun set over the volcano with the full moon hanging just above, one of the most gorgeous sunsets we have ever witnessed. For that, we let ...

... still hadn't seen the sights, so we knew what needed to be done. We took the Lonely Planet walking tour, the only description of the city available to us, and managed to get the entire way around in the one day. We saw churches, the library, the National Theatre, the cathedral and various other ornate buildings. Unfortunately, very little information in these places was in English, so we were a little restricted in what we could learn. We still ...

... looking forward to it. The pre-pasta pisco lead to with pasta wine which lead to post pasta pisco all adding up to a night on the town in santiago with some people we had met at our hostel. It was a lot of fun, though Claire took a lot of convincing to leave the dance floor when it got to 4.30am and Anthea and I were ready for bed! Not much sleep was had so we were a little weary as we made our way to the National Art Museum where we saw ...

... stuff. Restaurant, which was named Cinzano, had some locals jamming away, belting out the local tunes. A really cool spot. And that was Santiago/Valpariaso. Big thank you to Luz for showing me around. She went back to her dayjob as a forensic scientist and I traveled south to the Lake District area of Chile/Argentina. Need to pick up my pace though to make sure I make Rio in time for Carnival - not missing that one. Hasta Luego Amigos

... sounds so smooth and beautiful when pronounced in Spanish, especially with Spanish so suave and sexy as hers .... I asked her if she was Chilean, because I thought that her facial characteristics were quite distinct, and told her that she didn't look like any other Chilean women I have met (Ben later suggested that I had completely insulted all other Chilean women with this comment!) She was a little taken aback by this, almost a ...

... on travelling in South America from our fellow backpackers.<br><br>After chucking our bags in our new (rather grotty) room and applying liberal doses of sun cream, we headed out into the blazing Chilean sun. This was more like it!<br><br>It was, in our native London parlance ...