Flying Through the Twiglet Zone to Santiago

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Day 571 (20.10.08)

It's 2pm on the 20th October 2008 are we:

a) Waiting in a queue in the post office in Auckland, NZ
b) Sitting on a bus on the way to our hostel in Santiago, Chile
c) Both of the above?

Due to the wonders of the International Date Line the answer is c. After spending the morning finishing off little jobs in Auckland we caught the bus out to the airport and at 6.35pm took off and waved goodbye to the land of the long white cloud. 11 or so hours later after an uneventful flight we arrived in Santiago at about 1.30pm approximately 4 hours before we'd set off - amazing!

With our minds and bodies not entirely sure what time it was any more we got to our hostel and had a welcome hot shower. We met another traveller who was from Melbourne, and headed out together to find something to eat. It seems that hot dogs are the snack food of choice here in Santiago and they come 'completo' which means with lashings of chopped tomatoes, mayonnaise and guacamole. The first mouthful was unusual but before long Mark had decided that they really would be perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner!

We spent the evening poring over our guidebook and talking to other travellers to make some basic plans for our time in South America - something that we hadn't got around to before now. We've never been the most organised of people!

Day 572 (21.10.08)

After a good sleep we got up and enjoyed our hotel's free breakfast starting to feel like we were settling into the correct timeframe.

For the rest of the day we walked the streets of Santiago until our feet ached discovering the city's sights and sounds. Other than a few museums there's not a massive amount to do here but its a pretty developed city so makes a good starting point for a journey in South America - a good job really since it seemed to be the only place we could fly into.

Probably our favourite part of the day was Santa Lucia where we climbed the various pretty steps and terraces to a viewpoint which gave us views across the city where the snowcapped Andes seem to rise like a wall above the thick city smog. We then had a great time zig-zagging our way around the multicoloured area of Bellavista before heading back toward the centre to admire the grand buildings and do a spot of people watching in the Plaza de Armas. Finishing up with a quick stop in the Plaza de la Constitucion we made our way back to our hostel more than ready to put our feet up.

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