Chillin in Chile

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Happy New Years! For New Years in Chile we ate at an Argentian restaurant with my parents. The fact that most restaurants were closed or full convinced Mum that we would have to spend New Years Eve eating at the petrol station. No one was keen to take up on the idea... and low and behold we stumbled upon a restaurant that served Argentian steak, with one spare table! ... 500g of steak each!! Dad was in heaven! Then to top of the night I managed to break a glass.... I know you are thinking typical. ha ha.

We had a few days laxing in Santiago with the olds... we stayed at a friend of the familys house. We had the house to ourselves and made full use of his pool. It was so nice to chill out and relax in the hot sun... (no smog while we were there). We even checked out the malls in the area... and we saw the most flashest mall in our lives... a little disappointing for bargain-hunting mother. We cant get over the difference in wealth between Bolivia and Chile... its amazing how countries so close can be so different.

I managed to get pickpocketed on the subway.... and nearly lost my wallet. This guy bumped into me and I looked at my bag and saw that it was open. I was a little surprised and looked into to it and saw my camera but not my wallet, so I asked the guy if he had my wallet... (but in spanglish, didnt know word for wallet). I lifted up the guys jumper... saw my wallet and grabbed it out of his pocket and within two seconds the train had stopped and he had gone. I later wished I had pulled out my kung fu. It pays to have a pink wallet in such occasions.

From Santiago we went south to Puerto Montt... in the lower part of the Lakes District We took a day trip to Puerto Varas and visited a national park that was close by. It is a very beautiful region and the water is pristine... you could even see the bottom of the lake (try doing that at the river outside our house!)... there are a lot of similarities between the Lakes District in Chile and NZ.... (except in NZ you dont have to pay $7 to use a picnic table). We are now in Barriloche, Argentina and heading out for a hike tomorrow.

Meanwhile, jeep is getting fixed in Santiago... lets hope we get get back home alright!

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