8th September 2006 - Arrival!

We've arrived. We got to Santiago de Chile yesterday after a 20 hour journey! Getting into the airport meant being harrassed by millions of taxi drivers trying to get you to use their taxi, but instead we got the bus for 1200 pesos (around 1.20) into the centre of Santiago and then a twenty minute walk to our hostel. The hostel is lovely, quite centrally located but in a quieter street. The hosts are extremely friendly, there's at least two generations runnings the place. it's cheap and cheerful. Wandering around Santiago is a great thing to do, it's so colourful here and full of people. It's surprisingly clean of litter. Lots of fun street performers and such. Yesterday we went up a hill called Santa Lucia which has numerous small parks spread all over, turn a corner and you'll find another wonderful little park or a spectacular view. The city is surrounded by the Andes so at most turns you can see a
snowcapped mountain, which is quite nice. Today we caught the furnicular (carriagey train thing that goes up hill) to the top of the Metropolitan Park which has the most amazing views of the whole of Santiago and the mountains. The photo to the left is from there, but sadly we were stood infront of a tree when the guy took our picture so you can't see the mountains, but I promise there are some - you want proof? Look to the right! We've yet to truly taste the Chilean cuisine, but we've had empandas which are kinda like pasties but more interesting and the hotdog, which seems to be a big thing here and you can get it with a wide variety of toppings. We have three more days left in Santiago, then we are probably heading to the coast and then upwards as we have to be in Cusco, Peru by the 1st October in order to acclimatise before doing the Inca Trek to Machu Picchu, yay!