Chilly in Chile in 18 Hours

  Santiago, Chile
Monday, July 9, 2007

Despite all the last minute plastering of walls and rushing in Sydney we made the flights with plenty of time to spare.  As predicted Liz balled her eyes out at the airport... just like a 7 years old little girl and again mid flight whilst listening to Coldplay.

After a quick stop in Auckland we arrived in Santiago about 16 hours later and it was freezing, 7 degrees when we landed at 1pm.  BRrrrrrrrrrrrr

The hotel we stayed in was in a pretty good area but nothing flash.  We decided despite advice from our concierge, we would check out Downtown Santiago.  (too busy apparently - doesn't he realise we are moving to London....).  Within 2mins of standing aimlessly at the subway station like a Gringo, a friendly local took us under his wing and helped us buy a ticket and escorted us onto the train. Emerson even offered to call his girlfriend and the two of them would show us around.  We graciously declined and went on our way. 

We checked out the equivalent of Pitt St mall, some architecture and a nice church. Catholicism is big here!  Awesome street performers which we will try and attach a video to the blog.  Lots of security on the streets which was interesting but made us feel safe.  A little paranoia having set in as everyone we had spoken to had warned us about pick pockets.

Beaten by the cold and jet lag we head back to the hotel for a snooze and to dig out the thermals.  -2 is the forecast for the evening....

Dinner was had in a local restaurant with a large number of Americans...talking loudly and one table of locals.  The steaks were amazing, the red wine was great and we both got over excited about the trip and headed back to our hotel to raid the mini bar!!

So.... first entry done... from the first class lounge in Santiago.  Off to Bogota to stay in our first hostel....