Santiago and beyond

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We spent five peaceful days with Cristian and his family - drinking, laughing and spending warm and easy evenings watching football on the tiny TV set that had been dragged outside into the yard. Eventually, we bade farewell to Cristain, and our first couchsurfing experience, and heaved our bags onto the metro. We travelled across town to a hostel in Bela Vista, to meet Javi and Nati (the couple who owned the hostel we had stayed in in Bariloche). Javi and Nati are actually on their honeymoon, but had no qualms about interrupting their holiday to meet up with us and return the camera that we had left hundreds of miles away in Patagonia - the camera that they had gone to extraordinary lengths to retrieve for us (it's a long story). The hostel was tucked away in Bela Vista, a bohemium district scattered with theatres, art shops and bars. The sides of buildings are decorated with vibrant and skillful graffiti and bizarre objects, such as Victorian bath tubs, perch on the pavements, serving as benches. It was great to see Nati and Javi again, who have done so much for us, and in process have become good friends of ours.

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