Santiago to Valparaiso

So our original plan of waking up at 8 and being out the door at 9 to catch a 10:30 bus to Valparaiso went right out the door when we found that sleep was nowhere to be found on wednesday night. So, at 3am in the morning we decided to turn the alarm off and just wake up when we did. Luckily, we hadn't booked any bus, so our plans were relatively flexible. We ended up waking up at 10:45 on thursday, shocked that we had slept so long (though in hindsight, this was totally justifiable) and skipped our provided breakfast at the hostel, quickly checked out, raced to the metro, managed to buy tickets and get off at the right stop, find the bus terminal, buy our tickets and then jump on the 12:15 service! We're pretty proud of that little acheivement, and were pretty cocky about it for a while after. The bus was very luxurious, even though it was only one of their standard buses. Their nicest buses which they use for the long trips between multiple countries have fold down seats that convert into beds. So anyway, once we got into Valparaiso, we caught one of the public buses to our hostel, which we managed to find with great help from our Lonely Planet guide. That guide has been indispensable for us, and I'm sure that it will get some heavy use in the coming months. Our hostel was up a street with lots of really interesting street art on the buildings and a small plaza at the top which is decorated with a very large mosaic mural. Our afternoon activities consisted of walking around, discovering our surroundings and taking loads of pictures, as it is an incredibly picturesque city. The sidewalks are constantly pumping with people jostling past each other, the roads are chokka with taxis and buses (a public transport system that puts Auckland's to shame) that are constantly beeping their horns, pulling out in front of each other and making you really wonder how you don't see accidents happen all the time. This bustling vibe does not let up until the wee hours of the morning, so, needless to say, neither Ilona nor I managed to get much sleep. I probably only got about 2 hours, as our dorm-mates came home at all hours, drunk, stumbling around and tossing and turning in their creaky bunks. It's a wonder that Ilona didn't wake up. Friday has been spent stumbling around in the heat, attempting to beat overwhelming fatigue, fighting off the onset of a chest cold on my part and limping along the road on Ilona's. Many pictures were taken, which can most likely be seen on facebook, and the day ended with us deciding that one more night in this madness would be too much, so we booked an overnight over the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina. This trip is one that we would have liked to have done during daylight hours, as the scenery is said to be absolutely stunning, but we will have another opportunity to make this trip again on our final leg back into Argentina at the end of April. Anyhow, sitting in the bus terminal, waiting for the aforementioned bus has bought me the time to type my first blog entry and hopefully sleep!

Mike

Auckland to Santiago

Well here we are and HOT! We had some tearful goodbyes in Auckland before an 11hr 50min flight to Bueno Aires which felt a lot longer due to the lack of mini screens on each seat, and the flickering big ones meant watching anything was imposible, not to mention the lack of working headphone jacks on our seats!. For Mike the flight was also hard due to the lack of space, we did however manage to get seats in front of the emergency exit so had lots of leg room, but the seats were still rather small and cramped. I managed to sleep for a few hours on the flight but still felt ready for bed when we finally got to Chile. It was awesome seeing the Andes from the plane and the landscape of South America spread beneath us. As soon as we landed in Buenos Aires is started to rain and within minutes it was hailing like I have never seen before and the wind was whipping it around, pretty amazing especially as it was 34C outside! After a 2hour flight which was rather delayed, we arrived in Chile at 11.30pm local time (around 4.30pm NZ time - 21 hours after our flight left NZ!). We got a taxi to our hostel which is an eco place quite close to the middle of Santiago in a area full of street art and people dinning on the roads, pretty cool. Although exausted, I was still awake at 3.30am local time and resorted to ear plugs as there were people talking outside, Mike however was sleeping like a baby right through to 10.45am when our alarm went off. At breakfast we met a German girl and have the spent the day walking the city with her. Santiago is a cool city, though rather smoggy. The view from the mountain next to our hostel is amazing, you can see most of the city spread flat beneath you with the vague outlines of the Andes on the horizon. We're probably going to head to Valparaiso tomorrow, which is a bohemian seaside town and will be visiting Santiago again on our return journey back to Argentina.