Day 243 Chile, Santiago.

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Hi Bloggers, friends and family,



We seem to be out of sync with everyone in this hostel. We went to bed about 12 last night but we were the only people in the 8 bed dorm when we went to sleep but when we woke up it was full, we got up about 8am and went online and got breakfast from the hostel. (It’s only 900 peso for eggs and toast so £1)



When we got back to the room about 10am everyone was still asleep so they must have been out partying last night, very jealous!! We had booked 2 more night at Casa de Roja, but in the 10 bed dorms, as it was cheaper. We changed rooms and decided to head out for the day exploring the city.



We were meant to meet Cristian our friend from our Australia outback tour, but he had been up all night with his sick aunt so he arranged to meet us in the late afternoon around 5pm.



We decided to walk into town, as it was only a 15 min walk to our first stop, the plaza de arms. This was a huge square where the military offices are, it was really nice and had a lot of artist around selling paintings and doing caricatures of people.



We then walked to the museum of art, this was free to get in but had a donation box so its good to put in 1000 pesos to help. There were a lot of modern and classic art displays here, we always enjoy the art galleries.



We then walked to Cerro Santa Lucia; this was a hill in the city and gave great views over the surrounding area. The walk up was easy but very busy; there is a nice restaurant at the top and a few churches. Well worth the walk up!!



We decided to head back to the hostel to check that Cristian was still good to come and see us and to grab some lunch on the walk back. We stopped off at this local restaurant we had dinner the night before, they had a lunch special of soup, salad, main and a drink for 3500 peso, I took the risk and it was really good the main ended up being omelet with fries. Vick wanted fruit for lunch so got some bananas, grapefruit and a pear.



We checked in and Cristian said he would pick us up from outside at 5pm; it was about 3.30pm so we watched a new TV show called “Grimm” it is like a fairytale scary TV show, very good!!!



So Cristian turned up spot on time, it was good to see him after about 6 ago, all that had changed was he had long hair to his shoulders before and now nothing lol!! He seemed happy to see us and we were happy to see him again.



So the plan was to drive up to Cerro San Cristobal, on the way we drove pass a huge market, Cristian said it was touristy, but hey that is us!! There is a Funiclar (cable car kind of thing), which can take you up to the top of the Cerro however we had a car so we got to drive up. (Thank god as it was so busy at the bottom)



Once we got to the top we had to walk up to the statue of the Virgin Mary to see the amazing views of the Andes and of Santiago. On the way up we caught up with what Cristian had been up to since we last saw him and where we had been as well, it was really good to catch up, it’s the best part of travelling meeting people and even better when you can visit them in the own country, city!!



After all that driving and walking we decided to head for dinner somewhere, it was 8pm but that’s still early for dinner in South America. Cristian wanted to go to this place called Domingo’s however it was closed when we got there so we ended up at a very Chilean food place, it had a German name but the food was unbelievable!! It was a sandwich but with loads of tomato, guacamole, lettuce, cheese and to top it off either pork or beef. It was so good and Vick and I had a beer each as well!!!



After that Cristian was going to see a friend so he dropped us off at the hostel, sadly we said out goodbyes and thanked him for everything. He said the one thing we had to do was go to Valparaiso the next day as it was a beautiful town on the coast.



We headed to bed to watch a TV show before bed as it was about 10.30pm and had been a long day. We looked up Valparaiso and worked out were to get a bus from and how long it would take. Excited to go there now tomorrow.



Love N&V X

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