Jul 23, 2005 - Santiago

Took a 35 hour bus ride to santiago over the past 2 days. The bus broke down outside of Arica and we had to switch from our comfortable lazyboy chairs to a crowded cramped bus for a 3 hour ride to Iquique. Iquique is a pretty little surf town on the coast at the edge of the Atacama desert. After a 2 hour wait our original bus showed up and we were off. Slept through the night and arrived in Santiago today at 3pm local time. Found a great old mansion in the center of the city that has been converted to a hostal. -iNCAMAN the seats on the...

Jul 23, 2005 - Santiago - Chile

The flight to South America marked the beginning of the end for us. The last continent, moving into the last month of the holiday. Surely it will never end... It was a very long flight to Santiago on Lan Chile Airlines. We even crossed the International Date Line! Which means we left Auckland at 5:50pm on July 23 and we arrived in Santiago at 12:30pm on July 23! Very strange. In fact we didn?t take that into account when making hotel reservations months ago. We arrived a day early. Oops!!!! But also good because technically, we gained a...

Jul 8, 2005 - Santiago de Chile

hallo alle zusammen! jetzt meld ich mich also aus santiago, und mir gehts super. Viel kann ich euch ja eigntlich noch nicht erzaehlen, weil ich bin gestern hier um 2h nachts, dh ja eigentlich heute um 2h frueh hier angekommen und obwohl ich ja schon an null schlaf gewohnt bin, hab ich mich heut mal ein bisserl mehr ausgeschlafen. Und naja wenn man bis 12h mittag pennt und es jetzt 19h is gibts noch nicht so viel. Werd euch nur kurz ueber meine gastfamilie erzahlen: Also ich wohn bei Irma und Hector und ihren beiden Toechtern Paula und Rocio...

Jul 6, 2005 - Chile and Bolivia

As we settled in to our seats on the 747 from New Zealand to Chile, we reflected on how travel savvy we had become patting each other on the back, whilst looking forward confidently to South America. Funny how just when you start to get cocky life has a habit of testing you! Soon after leaving the airport in Santiago and beginning our hunt for a room we found that even pigeon Spanish, combined with several months worth of well rehearsed mimes or impressions, would not help us to communicate effectively in South America. We were going to...

Jul 6, 2005 - Santiago

After an 11 hour flight we arrive in Santiago at approximately 12:30pm on 6th July, before we have even left Auckland due to crossing the international date line. How exciting - an extra day! What would Einstein have made of it? Arriving in Santiago, we check out hotels only to gatecrash another couple's taxi as we are all going to the same place. Our hotel is very strange but we guess we are going to have to get used to these standards all over again. The showers in the hotel are few and far between. None of the toilets that we have...

Jul 3, 2005 - Santiago - a super quick visit to Chile

While hanging out in the Lima airport, Gregg did some reading up on Chile in our guidebook. Fortunately, he caught the little blurb which indicated that Americans visiting the country have to pay a $100 exit fee to get out of the country! This fact led us to reconsider our 24-hour stay in Santiago. When we got off the plane, we immediately went to the LAN counter to rebook on an earlier flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires. While we really did want to see Santiago, we certainly didn't think it was worth it for a one-day stay that would cost...

Jun 22, 2005 - Santiago, Chile

I arrived in Santiago yesterday (21/06) and stayed in the YHA Hostel last night. I fly out to Auckland this evening. Yesterday was very wet but today is bright and sunny so you can see the snow on the Andes. Nice. Well, I guess that this is pretty much it for South America. I have been to a lot of places and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of travelling in this continent. My favourite bits of South America? It's hard to say because there have been so many great moments. The Bolivian Salt Flats certainly stand out as an amazing...

Jun 10, 2005 - Last day in Chile

Santiago, Chile After checking out and leaving my backpack in storage, when I got out it was pouring down! I could no longer just walk around aimlessly without knowing where I was going. So I got back in to open my guidebook and decide where exactly I wanted to go. I decided to go to Museo de Artes Visuales. After taking a metro and walking in rain for few minutes, I made it there in my wet clothes. However, the exhibits in the museum rewarded me with their wonderful displays. In particular, I enjoyed an exhibit called "The last 100 days"...

Jun 9, 2005 - Back to the city I loved

Santiago, Chile As I arrived to Santiago and got a room, I just collapsed in the bed and slept off in order to repair my muscles and regain some energy. Though I still made it for the breakfast! Taking a shower rejuvenated me. With my muscles still aching, I walked out around noon. Now I can visit the museums that I could not last time. I straighaway went to Museo Chileno de Artes Precolombino. It was fascinating and saddening at the same time to learn about all those great civilizations that existed before the greed for gold brought...

Jun 6, 2005 - A metropolitan at the base of the Andes

Santiago, Chile I got up just in time to get my breakfast, during which I met Nicole from Australia. I was considering of going to Pucon that night and she said she may also be going there. Well, may be we'll meet up there. I went out and as I started walking toward Plaza de Armas, I couldn't help getting impressed by the liveliness of that area. Most of the streets around there were meant for pedestrians only and hordes of humans were walking, selling, buying on those streets. As I approached a museum, I was disappointed to learn that most...

Jun 5, 2005 - $500 for a coke!

Santiago, Chile As I got out of the airport at Santiago, Chile, I thought things may not change much; this is just another Spanish country, what more could be different? As I saw the price of coke on a machine, I was shocked: $500..!! 500 dollars? Just little later I discoverd that 1 US dollar was worth 580 Chile pesos! They still use the same symbol of $ to represent pesos. So when I went to an exchange booth and asked for change for 34 Argentin pesos, I got nearly 5000 Chile pesos! There were coins of 100 and 500! Then I discovered...

May 29, 2005 - Santiago - Chile

We got to Santiago late at night but managed to get a great litle Hostel in one of Santiagos Old quaters. Plum trees lined the cobblestones streets and building gave you the impression that you had somehow got lost in the Mountains and bused it to Europe instead. The next day reviled a little more though. The city is Beautiful, and it has some really great constrasts of old Colonial and Contemporary Architecture. However the smog haze that is traped in the city valley by the surrounding mountains litterally takes the 'shine' off hat would...