santiago and its suburb of shattered dreams

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the hostel we ares taying at now in santiago (hostelling international) is better than the last one. its just up the road from some really great restaurants and bars - the food here has been excellent, and so far weve eaten everything and not been sick.

on the day we got back here, we decided to have a quiet day but found a brochure for a really tacky dinner and show on the other side of town. once we read on the web site that you get flowers around your neck as they greet you at the door, we were there! jumped in a taxi and 15 mins later arrived at the door with all the other guests dressed in their evening gowns - we had jeans on (but our best going out tops!) - to be told that they were booked out. we had to head straight back from what we dubbed the suburb of shattered dreams to our end of town but the $25 round trip in the taxi was worth it, because it was so interesting to go to the weathly side of town. the city could have been any western city in the world - apart from the imposing mountains that surround it. its really cool to see high rise apartments, with the mountains right behind it.

we wondered down the street back home to go to dinner, somewhere were we were more suitable dressed, and closer to our budget, when Marty - who was now aparently our new Argentinian friend, joined us on our walk and invited himself to dinner. we had chinese in chile for dinner, and laughed the whole time at marty - funny little guy. back at the hostel we had beers and were joined with marty the argentinian, pablo the german stalker (slicked back hair and jeans cut off at the knee) and a portuguese guy who we actually had met at the other santiago hostel before, but he doesnt speak english. they were our only friends that night, as we got yelled at twice for being noisy (sorry!). another blessing in disguise i think - flowers around the neck would have been fab, but we had a really great night.

in bed by 12ish to get up at 7 (its pretty impossible to sleep anyway with people arriving in our doom room at all hours of the night, or leaving early for tours or flights) to go to our first tour - Aconcagua. because we had trouble booking a tour (they were all full or not running on that day) we were confused about what we were actually doing. all we knew was that it involved 2 hours of walking, which megan was quietly protesting about.

Arconcagua, as it turns out, is a mountain that is part of the Andes and almost 7,000 ft high, oh and also in Argentina. so yay we bused it for about 2hrs, crossed the Argentinian border and went into the Andes. it was absolutely spectacular on the way there, and Arcocagua was just stunning. i dont know if its just cos i havent seen mountains like this before but it was just so unbelieable - its so weird to see something so clear and massive, but so far away. it threw my perspective all out. the border crossing took a little while (but worth it for the stamp in my passport). first stop was a natural bridge made out of calsified stuff. it was so cool, if you put a object into the river in 40 or so hours (i think) it comes out rock hard and covered in lime. they were selling calsified objects like shoes and bottles - too heavy and kinda ugly to purchase tho. arriving at Aconcagua we had lunch (a steak sandwich - vego isnt really working here - its been easier just to eat what comes) then set off for the trek towards the mountain. although we were just walking for 2 hours, to actually reach the summit it takes about 3 weeks to climb the face, and at one stage they have to climb a glacier 300m high. there were a couple of fresh water lakes a long the way and that walk was just amazing. we took heaps of pics, but i dont think they will do it justice. it just look so surreal in real life - like the background is a painting. it seriously spun me out - just so beautiful.

crossing back over the border was a bit of a nighmare but we finally arrived back at our hostel tired and sunburnt (despite the multiple sunscreen applications) about 12 hours later. its actually really warm here, almost liek perth summer, which is great cos we were expectign it to be cold. evidently we have to be super careful at altitudes with the sun burn, because our olive-skinned english friend back in valparaiso who has never had sunburn in his life, got sun burn so bad, his face cracked open and children were scared of him on the street.

we had acidentally kept the key from Casa Victoria, so we contacted Carolina (from Valpariaso, but she lives in Santiago) to ask what we should do. we arranged to meet her that night just down the road at a bar. she was there with a big group of her friends and we had a great sushi meal (better than home!) and a few drinks with them. its amazing because some of them speak english just from watching american movies and listening to music. we had a good time, but were pretty stuffed from the day so we left them at about 1030pm to go home.

havent had time to finish this one (its a week later now) but anyway...
next night we went out with carolina and her friends to a great local pub, that brewed their own beers. was a fantastic night again (thanks carolina). we had to get in a taxi for the airport at 5am, and we decided that we wer having such a good time, we would not bother sleeping. a couple of red bulls and a coffee later we were very thankful to get on the plane to lima.

loved chile.

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