First off, a few words about Santiago. I've heard loads of people complain that it's expensive, polluted, "too European" (whatever that's supposed to mean), you name it. In our book, Santiago is a sleek and modern city, and we enjoyed every minute we spent there. It's more expensive than the other places we'd been in the trip, true, but then Chile has a functional economy and besides it's a lovely city so we weren't complaining. Apparently it's got a bit of a smog problem but having spent lots of time in London (and Quito for that matter!) we didn't even notice it. We'd also managed to collect our new tent from the post office (bought on eBay, always a risk when abroad!) and were ready for the next leg of the journey: camping and trekking in
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