Santiago

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Paul enjoyed his Volcano climb in Pucon, saw molten lava, and the volcano booming and throwing up lava. The climb took about 6 hours, with lots of laughing on the way up, coming down only took about 1 and a half hours. We slid down huge snow chutes, and felt like we were bobsledding. He got quite wet and cold but had a good day.

I had a trip over, getting the biggest bruise ever on my knee cap.
I wanted to see the Monkey Puzzle tree forest so went on a bus to the park, only to be told it was a 6 hour hike and I had to be back to catch the bus to Santiago that night. I didn't have time to walk to the trees but I saw a hummingbird and a skink that was green, blue and had a purple tail.


We caught the bus to Santiago that night. We bought ear plugs so that we could hear the TV and the bus steward quickly gave us pillows and blankets and closed the curtains and put us all to sleep. No TV for us on that trip. However we slept well except for someone with really smelly feet - it wasn't us. We got for breakfast a dry bun with cheese on it.

We arrived in Santiago on Good Friday at 8 am, to be ripped off by a taxi driver,big time. We got off the bus, tired disorientated and a man came and asked if we wanted a taxi. He could speak good English and I felt something was strange when he took us passed the taxi rank and out the street and around the corner. The drive took us 10 minutes and when it came to paying he couldn't speak English anymore. The drive cost us $40 us - should have cost us about $5, but when you don't know that language you have trouble arguing. We will be more careful from now on, we will choose the taxi for ourselves. There was a subway we could have taken right by the bus stop.
While we were waiting for our beds in the hostel, we went for a walk and was approached by a man to eat at his cafe. We said no, but then Paul had a change of mind and we went back and had the funniest couple of hours. We were entertained by the chef and 2 of his friends, all drunk. The meal was shit, but the entertainment was worth it. They were trying to teach us Spanish, and about the country and how good the wine is, they fed us wine in cups. He gave us a sample of marinated raw fish, when he served us he took a big mouthful for himself and then when the next customer came he got a sample, served with the same spoon. It was really good fun.

Santiago is a big city, with a smog problem. The city is built in a hollow and surrounded by the Andes and hills and gets no wind. We went for a walk and went up the hill and had a cable car ride that would have a good view of the area if you could see through the air. This hill was in the middle of the city, with a huge statue of the Virgin on top. There were walks and people riding bikes over the hill. It was very steep, with a zoo on the side. I went to see one of Pablo Neruda's houses, the one he had for his mistress who became his wife. It was a really fun house, very narrow, steep stairways, secret doors and some of his collections of glass and paintings. They really idolise him here, he got the Nobel Prize for literature.

Our hostel was run by an American and was called Hostel de Sammy. It was a great place to stay and was only a short walk to the subway and was in an area of Universities. The streets were empty over Easter, but when school was back the streets were full of young people. We stayed until the shops were open, so I could see if my iPAQ could be fixed. It couldn't but I got really good service from the Hp people at the head office, for South America. I had to buy a new one and it took three days to come, so we did a trip to Valparaiso.

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