Same day, different place

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After a couple of hours sleep in my less than comfortable rear row seat, I woke up with the light streaming in through my neighbours window. The cloudless brilliant blue sky over the Pacific boded well for fine weather when we landed in Santiago. Unsurprisingly, I had drifted off to sleep last night watching 'The Proposal' - an awful vehicle for Sandra Bullock to show she still believes herself able to do rom-coms! On the upside I was greeted with an interesting breakfast of bacon and thin slimy rolled omelette, showing that no matter who you fly with, their in-flight meals are all equally shocking!

We landed in Santiago at around 11am, flying in over the dry mountainous landscape into one of the worlds largest cities. I had plenty of time until I could check into the hostel, which as it turned out was rather lucky. Although getting through immigration was a quick and painless process collecting my bags took an eternity. From what I could understand, the baggage crew were having problems getting to the part of the hold containing my bag and several other peoples. It was almost an hour before I was reunited with my backpack and passing through the arrivals lounge to make my way into the city.

The hostel I had booked with had been massively helpful in emailing me instructions of how to get to the hostel using both public transport and the notorious airport taxi service. Knowing full-well that I'd probably get stung by taking a taxi I decided to brave it and go by bus and train. The bus took me from the airport close to the centre of the city, dropping me opposite Los Heros metro station. After trying to conquer the language barrier I managed to get help from the one person whose English was far better than my Spanish, and once pointed in the right direction was soon on my way to Salvador station.

I emerged back on to the street six stops later and still none the wiser to where I was. After a quick scan over the instructions, it was more through luck that judgement that I managed to find the side street the hostel was on. Nicolas checked me in and showed me to my dorm that was much like any other that I'd stayed in on my trip, with backpacks and bags strewn across the floor and damp towels and cloths hanging from the ends of beds. The Aji hostel was set in a rustic building with parquet floors and thick set wooden beams in the ceilings and walls; although not the most modern place had heaps of character. I dumped my bags and after a little advice from Nicholas, decided to go straight out to explore my new surroundings. I was a little apprehensive about starting traveling again and worried that I had become too comfortable in my surroundings whilst in Australia. The only thing to do was get stuck in straight away!

I walked through the Parque Forestal towards the Bellavista neighbourhood of town. Bellavista is the hip bohemian part of Santiago where all the coolest clubs and bars are, as well as being a haven for the students. I wondered through Patio Bellavista which contained many boutique cloths shops as well as a collection of restaurants serving dishes from around the world. I had a browse at what was on offer bit didn't stop because I had a a taller order to pursue. I rounded the corner on Constitucion and walked up Pio Nono towards Cerro San Cristóbal (San Cristóbal Hill). Cerro San Cristóbal is the highest point in Santiago and Nicholas said it was worth a visit to get a view of the whole city. I made my way to the 'Fenicular' kiosk and mustered my best Spanish to ask for a ticket to the top. I did have a romantic idea of walking back down the hill, but when told it was a six kilometre hike decided that I best get a return ticket! The 'Fenicular' was a tiered wagon that was attached by steel cable to another wagon that ferried people up and down the hill on a pulley system. As we waited for the journey to the top to start we were serenaded by a chap with a guitar and the typically Chilean pipes, playing his version of Louis Armstrong's 'What a wonderful World'.

Five minutes later we had reached the top of the Cerro San Cristóbal, and i was surveying the huge and sprawling cityscape of Santiago - it was quite something to look at. You could see everything stretching from the mountains on one side of the city to the mountains encasing it on the other. The only thing that let down the impressive vista was the notorious Santiago smog which visibly hung above the city. Although I'd read about it, you couldn't truly appreciate how bad it was until you saw it blanket the city from the hill. Once I'd taken a couple of touristy shots I decided to venture on up to the 'Virgin on the Hill'. Right at the summit was a huge statue of the Virgin Mary looking out over Santiago. Next to the statue was a small Catholic Church which I ventured into. It was wonderfully peaceful and it made me think about the various religions and cultures I had experienced so far on my trip. I learnt about Hinduism in India and the various differences of Buddhism in Asia but South American places of worship would be more than familiar.

Once back on the ground I decided that I couldn't put off eating any longer and wandered back through Patio Bellavista to find something that appealed. I found the aptly named Bellavista sandwich club and lured in by the smell coming from the gallery kitchen. I sat outside on the terrace and ordered one of the local beers and a pulled pork sandwich. The beer was a local Santiago brew, beautifully dark amber in colour with a crisp white head on it. It was hoppier than I expected with quite a sweet aftertaste but in the heat of the afternoon sun was very welcome. The pulled pork beautifully tenter and lightly seasoned with paprika and chilli, served on a toasted ciabatta with homemade coleslaw and homemade chips. It was a little more than I had expected to pay on my budget, but it was well worth it!

The rest of my evening was spent trying to organise transport for the rest of my trip. I had found a fantastic website called Green Toad Buses which booked tickets and organised excursions along your route to suit you. From the first look it seemed like it would be a valuable money saving tool, as well as allowing me to fit in everything that I wanted to see in South America. I was exhausted, and so retired for the night so that my body could rejuvenate after having had to do the sixth of December twice in one year!

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