Santiago

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I arrive in Santiago at 8am after a not so great on the ejectivo service. Decided the extra money probably wasn´t worth it, the chair was great but not even any hot food! Get a taxi to Hostel de Sammy, great homely place with huge beds. Somehow forget I am tired so go wandering around town, see the South American artefacts museum, great findings from all of the countries. Then try to find a shop with English books, no luck. The one advertised as the best in Santiago only has 5 books all of which are by Danielle Steele! Then trek across town looking for an Eglish pub... only English meal it serves is steak and kidney pie, urggh. Finally get back to the hostel at 4 and time for an afternoon nap.
Many of the people in the hostel had been staying for 4 months while studying so it was time for leaving do´s. We left about 12 to the bar area of town and sat outside (very chilly) for a few beers. We voted on what type of club to go to which turned out to be useless as we could only find one open. We negotiated girls were free then realised we were the only ones there and it only had reggae music, not even any regaton. Somehow we managed to stay dancing for hours and get home in the early hours. I hadn´t eaten dinner so had ice cream and then got woken from the tv room sofa and told to go to bed.
Not eating the night before led to a large hangover so luckily the hostel had the best tv/dvd collection ever, all downloaded onto an x box. So a day of tv therapy.
Next day saw some sights around town and the local artesan markets.
Final day I went to see a speech by the Dalai Lama who is currently touring South America. Luckily he spoke in English and then his translater converted to Spanish. He´s an odd little man like yoda really. He giggled a lot but mainly said we need more compasion in the world. Later was questions and answers when I realised there was no point staying, the question would be read fast in spanish then he would reply in tibetan and then that would be translated to spanish, I was lost! Last night so we had to go out, after a marathon session of my name is earl we finally left at midnight to the posh area of town. Much busier than the other night so went to lots of bars and clubs. Was woken from the tv room sofa again though.

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