We arrived in Santiago after our longest bus journey to date, twenty three hours on a bus from San Pedro de Atacama in the north of the country. We were met at the bus station by Claudio, the owner of Donde Claudio where we would be staying. He was a jolly Chileano with perfect English and immediately set about organising everything from doctor's appointments to transport to the airport for us. His hostel was great too, very communal, relaxed and sociable. The location of the hostel was perfect, it felt like a quiet suburban area (there was a ballet school across the road with classical music coming from it every morning and hardly any cars) but we were only a ten minute walk from the city centre. The area, Bellavista was also the location of some
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