Santiago our Final Destination

Another overnight bus journey landed us in Santiago de Chile our final destination in South America. We arrived at the bus terminal around 6am, after leaving Mendoza at 11pm the previous night, and doing a one hour border crossing at 2am. Needless to say we were pretty tired but being a Sunday it was relatively quite and we just spent the day relaxing at the hostel and starting to make a few plans for our next destination, New Zealand. Sundays can often be a bit quiet in South American cities, and a few times we have been Domingoed (caught out by Sunday shop closures), but it's always a bit surreal to walk around such a large city when it's so quiet.

Santiago provides some conflicting feelings for us. Although we both really like it, it feels like a very cool and vibrant city, whilst being easily walkable, it also signifies the end of our time in South America. Five months that have flown by will bring an end to our Latin chapter as we fly out across the Pacific tonight.

We have only stayed for two nights but have had three full days allowing us to get a good feel of the Chilean capital. Our hostel was really nice and laid back, and although we had our first triple bunk bed dorm, we were fortunate it was only one and we had it to ourselves for both nights. Shortly after arriving the owner gave us a good account of what to do in case of an earthquake (stand under the door frames, don't go running around on the street or you will be crushed by a falling building!). Santiago suffers from around two noticeable quakes a month, and every few years a more destructive quake, the last being 2008 and measuring around 8.8 on the richter scale.

The following day we thought we better leave the safety of the dorm frame and visit the city. We did a free waking tour that lasted four hours and gave us a great insight into the history of Santiago, and of course in four hours we covered a lot of ground. One interesting quirk to Santiago is the invention of so called 'coffee shops with legs'. These are omnipresent in the downtown area and are essentially strip bars that don't sell alcohol and are open all day. As well as learning about where the strip clubs are we learnt a wealth of other information, none that can really be remembered now though.

After the tour we took a trip up the funicular to the top of the Cerro Conception, a large hill with the Virgin Mary on top that overlooks all of Santiago. The views are stunning, but you can only just make out the outline of the surrounding mountain range due to the layer of smog.

As it was our last full evening we thought we thought we'd treat ourselves at a nice authentic Chilean restaurant in the smart Bellavista district. We indulged in the local delicacy, Pastel de Choclo, a pie with beef, chicken and olives covered with mashed sweetcorn. Very tasty but also very filling!

Today on our last day we are laying in the beautiful Cerro Santa Lucia park, having just wolfed down 2 scoops of ice cream as we use up the last of our Chilean Pesos. Tonight (Tue) we fly out to Auckland, but due to the time zones will not arrive until Thursday for a very different type of adventure... did anyone say 'bungee jump'?