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Published: September 1st 2006
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Our room in the hostel was quite small with just a double bed in it, so small that you can only get into the bed from one side which was a bit annoying!!! We had only booked for two nights as we didn´t want to book for longer as we didn´t know what it would be like. Kim had also only booked for a few days but she was in the dorm. Its really nice here so we decided to book for the rest of the time we´re in Chile, partly because we´re too lazy to move elsewhere!!!! The hostel is really nice though, has a proper homely feel, with a proper kitchen so we can cook our own food. We moved into the dorm room which is actually really nice. There are three sets of bunk beds in it which are really comfy. Was a bit worried about sleeping on the top bunk though as there is no guard rail but i haven't fallen out yet!!!
Santiago is really just a big city, quite developed and not like most of the rest of South America we´ve seen. Its so big you wouldn´t actually know your not in the uk!!
Gill, Kim and Rhian
by the fountain near the Plaza de Arms in Santiago We did go to the farmers market yesterday which seemed a bit better.
Rhian was only here for one day so we went for a walk into the centre with her so she got to see the city. We went into a park called Cerro Santa Lucia, there is a big hill in it which we climbed up and got a good view from the top. We went out for lunch but some of the food words are different here even though they still speak spanish which annoying, we just got used to them!!!! We then went to the supermarket to get food so we could make our own meals!!
Been ace cooking for ourselves and not having to eat out. So far we´ve had quite a lot of pasta and tuna!!! We did also make mash which was soo good, but kinda hard as there is no masher in the hostel, had to just do with a tiny fork!!!! Been nice to be able to eat loads of veg and not lots of carbs!!!! We´ve also been enjoying drinking the Chilean wine as its really nice and cheap!
We did some stuff in here with Kim
Fountain
in the Cerro Santa Lucia (park in the city) but its been really nice to be able to relax!!!! We went to vineyard called Concho y Toro who produce Casillero del Diablo, had a tour there and sampled two of their wines. One for a few dollars a bottle and one for about 80 dollars a bottle and was quite good that we actually prefered the cheaper one!!!! They gave us a quite cool glass though which we are going to try and bring home, not sure how it will cope!!! The wine was quite nice and we got a tour as well as the story as to why the wine is called Casillero del Diablo which means cellar of the devil.
The owner of the vineyard had set aside some of the best wine for his family but noticed it was disappearing so the workers must have been stealing it. He then re-named the cellar, cellar of the devil to scare them so they wouldnt steal it anymore. He would also use a secret passage way that linked his house to the cellar to appear and scare them!
That night (after we had been wine tasting) there was also a wine tasting in our hostel run by
the guy who owns the hostel called Ian. We sampled 13 wines!!! Was really nice to try them all together so we could tell better which types we liked, although the more we drank, the more we liked!!! Ian said we´ll prob be here when he does the next one which we will prob do as well!!!! Its a pity that most of the ones we tried and liked we cant get in the Uk!!
We´ve been to a nearby big port called Valparaiso which was supposed to be really good. Was quite good but as we didnt take a map or the guide book with us i dont think we saw the best of it. It was also really really cold and windy! Was nice to go and see though. We also went to a beach near there called Viña del Mar. Was far too cold to think about swimming and its supposed to be quite polluted to. We did put our hands in the water though so we have now properly crossed the continent from coast to coast and touched the sea on both sides!!! Kim was a bit braver than us and cos she was wearing
sandles she put her feet in, regreted it later when she couldn´t warm her feet back up though!!!!
Kim left last night so now theres only just the two of us again, theres a stream of people staying here though so not like we´re ever gonna be alone!
We plan on doing some more Chilean things as well as spending some time relaxing and enjoying staying in one place!!! Will write more when we have actually done something!!!
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