Santiago

---

The bus journey from Bariloche to Santiago was a bit of a nightmare. We got a bus from El Bolson to Bariloche, which was only a little late, arriving at midday. Our next bus to Osorno was at 13.15. However, the weather was not on our side and due to heavy rain over the Andes our bus was delayed until 3.30pm. This meant we were cutting it very fine for our connecting bus from Osorno to Santiago at 8.30pm. The border crossing into Chile takes a long time. They're really concerned with food coming into their country as they don't have lots of the diseases that affect fruit and veg and want to keep it that way. Everything comes off the bus and the dogs do their work. They also check your bags, which left some French people we'd met amusingly having to eat half a pot of honey. No idea why they didn't just throw it away.

We ended up missing our bus in Osorno. The Andesmar Chile office was closed when we arrived at 9.30pm and the only solution offered by the staff on the bus was to wait until tomorrow. Luckily, there was a bus leaving in two minutes with another company that had seats for CLP$10,000 each. Feeling very relieved we gave our details to the guy on the bus. We giggled as he misread Alex's passport and put her name down as Alexandra British.

We arrived around 7.30am so the metro was rammed for rush hour. With big backpacks you'll struggle to get off at the station you want unless you make a move a couple of stops before. Having made it back to the correct stop and navigated the short walk, we checked into our hostel, Santiago Backpackers, dropped our bags in the luggage storage and headed to Cerro San Cristobal (San Cristobal mount). It has a statue of the Virgin Mary on the hill, similar to Christ the Redeemer. You can walk up but we went on the tram esk thing for CLP$2000 return each. The views of the city were great from the top and it was a very peaceful area. The city looked hazy, but it was due to the smog. Santiago is the third most polluted city in central and South America because it sits in a valley and the smog doesn't clearly easily.

After this we went to the Museum of Memories and Human Rights. Really interesting, about the Pinochet dictatorship and the atrocities committed during that time. There were audio guides in English for CLP$200 each but we hadn´ realised and were pressed for time anyway so unfortunately couldn´t afford to linger too long. This was the first time the Lonely Planet guide had let us down. It told us to take the metro to the Ricardo Cumming stop, but the Quinta Normal stop (the next stop on the metro line) is right outside the museum.

That afternoon we continued our trend of doing the free walking tour of cities and were glad we did. It was really good. The guide was enthusiastic and explained about the history of Chile as well as the city. The hostel offered a free dinner on a Tuesday, so tired and feeling lazy we signed up, though not expecting much. It was just pasta and sauce but fine for free. About 15 or so people were eating and we got chatting to a Kiwi couple, a German girl and a British pilot. Someone went on a beer run and considering it was CLP$ 1000 for a 600ml bottle we got a few. For some reason the consensus of the group was to go on to a gay club. Alex was tired so went to bed whilst a dozen or so of us headed out. The club was poor, just a room with a textured metal floor and loud music. I stuck with the Kiwis and it turned out to be a funny night.

The next day we went on the 'Offbeat' free walking tour (we do love a walking tour). Again it was really good and worth the tips ( we gave CLP$10,000, roughly a tenner between us). We went to three different markets: fruit and veg, fish and meat. They offered us some traditional Chilean bread that is mixed with squash and spicy salsa. The tour also visited the cemetery which was mental. It covers over 100 football pitches and has different mausoleums for different professions. Finished the tour with a free terremoto (earthquake) cocktail. Grenadine, white wine and pineapple ice cream, too sweet.

For Lunch we went back to one of the market stalls we had visited and been recommended to on the tour, a place called Tia Ruth (Aunt Ruth's - homely). We had massive bowls of homemade soup for CLP$2500 each (2pound 50) and Alex had half a chicken in hers. It looked funny as the waitress set it down. It was delicious and really filling. Afterwards, we walked up another hill, Cerro Saint Lucia. It wasn´t as high and didn´t have as good views as San Cristobal, but was nice nonetheless. We decided that six weeks in would be a good time to phone home and it only cost CLP$2370 for two phone calls of about 40 minutes.

Up early the next day, once again braving the metro rush hour to catch a bus to Valparaiso, which left every 15 minutes.

---