1 December 2007 - Santiago

It took 7 hours to get to Santiago in Chile from Mendoza. The border crossing was the strictest yet. All bags were taken off the bus and x-rayed which hadn't happened on any other land crossing. Luckily someone on the bus could speak english and translated for us because we didn't have a clue what was going on at first!! The views on the bus journey were incredible. It was so scenic and the snowy mountain tops in the scorching sun looked stunning.

We arrived in Santiago and it was very hot, the locals said it was unusually hot for this time of year. It stayed that way for the 5 days we were there.

We checked into our hostel which was called Forestal with no hitch and settled in. The hostel was immaculate which made a nice change!!

Our first mission in Santiago was to sort out our flight tickets. Luckily the Qantas office was a short metro ride and walk away. They were really helpful and it only took a few minutes to sort out. We didn't have to pay for the replacement tickets because we had our police report so that was a bonus. They did them as e tickets as well this time which would have been better if they had been done like that in the first place but hey no point bothering about it now. At least if we loose them this time we can print them off again!!

Santiago was a lovely city. A lot more developed than the other south american cities we had been to and it had a real european feel to it. It was also really clean, nice not to have to dodge the dog poo!!

A 5 minute walk from our hostel was the national park of Chile. It contained a zoo, many gardens, swimming pools, cable cars and a statue of the virgin Mary. It made a really good day out. It was in a wierd location slap bang in the middle of the city on a huge hill with everything built around it. You got some wicked views of the city from the top and from the cable cars but i wasn't too keen on them.

Our hostel was great. Pato and Daniel ran the show and they were sound. They put on bbq's with free wine which was great because you got to know the rest of the people staying in the hostel and get really drunk at the same time!! We made some good friends there in our 5 days.....Bessie, Mike, Roxanne, Jo, Stuart, Luke, Beth, Dan, Eleanor and Jake.

On our last night in South America Pato and Daniel took us clubbing. It was a wicked night and most of the hostel came. We were really rough the next day but Pato and Daniel let us stay in our room till 3 pm which was a result. Our flight wasn't till 11.05 pm.

Well what can we say!! South America has come to an end. We have had our problems to say the least during the last 3 months but we have loved it. We have learnt that things are never as bad as they first seem and if anything our problems have made us stronger. We are excited about our next adventure, a new chapter is beginning............G'day Australia here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!