Day 1 Monday - Today we got up oh so early to head down to Chile, firstyl heading down to Tacna and then on to Arica via a taxi which helped us across the Peru-Chile boarder. We then checked into a hostal called Hostal International which also goes by many other names. Immediately we were greeted by Roberto the Hostal owner and an on hte house welcoming drink. The Hostal was already our favourite and not just because of the free alcohol but also due to amazing graffiti wall and the vast array of memorabelia, games and general stuff that decorated the place. There were two other couples at the Hostal from Holland with perfect English of course. That night we went out to the city center where we visited the fair and had some drinks.
Day 2 Tuesday - Unlike Monday we woke up to overcast so our plan for the beach was off. We had breakfast and then took a short taxi ride to the bus station where we booked our tickets for that afternoon to Iquique. Our bus left at 2:30 pm and we arrived in Iquique at 7:00 approx. We ended up in the 2nd hostal of our choice as the first one was fully booked and we had to get a dorm....sharing with two other guys which was a little awkward but not too bad. That night we went out for a meal which was a little pricey but being a holiday not much else was open.
Day 3 Wednesday - We woke up this morning to breakfast and after moving into a double room (thank god) we met some English students from bath on there year abroad and found out they were based working in Santiago (our next stop!). We spent the day with our new friends firstly buying our tickets to Santiago the following day and then at la fonda, another fair were we drank a few too many teremotos. This is a drink made from pineapple icecream, white wine and grenadine which sounds yuck, but was actually rather tasty. We all won some teddies on the games and tehn headed back to the hostal were we continued our drinking.
Day 4 Thursday - We did not feel so good today after last nights drinking and therefore slept in a tad. Our bus was at 5.30 in the afternoon and therefore we went to the plaza to try and visit some museums however due to the holiday season most things were shut. We cooked pasta for lunch at the hostal and stocked up on food for the 26hour bus journey to Santiago. When we got on the bus our seats could not be worse. We were positioned between the toilet (horrible smell) and a mother with two young children (great).
Day 5 Friday - Most of the day was spent enduring the long and endless bus journey. When we finally arrived we got a tube down to Los Dominicos and were picked up by Roxana and her husband (friends of John´s mum). We unpacked our things and were taken out for dinner were we ate the biggest sandwhiches ever!
Day 6 Saturday - Today was Kuki´s (the husband) birthday so in the morning we helped Kuki get his birthday cake, bread, eggs and ice for his party in the evening. When we arrived back we ate lunch and then set off to the center of Santiago via the tube were we visited two parks (Santa Lucia and Forestal) - it was very beautiful. When we came back we visited the market next to Los Dominicos church whicb was full of very pretty but expensive souveniers. In the evening we went with Adri and her bf Gonzalo to a friends birthday.
Day 7 Sunday - Today we climbed a supposedly easy mini mountain with Alfredo (the boyfriend of Monica one of Roxanas daughters), his brother and his Golden Retriever Roco, which when we finally reached the top uncovered a spectacular view of Santiago and the surrounding mountains. Tonight we are going to see Ted at the Cinema.
Vicky and John
xxx
2 comments:
What a view of that mountain wow. Those teremotos sound lethal. The bus ride does sound like the bus ride from hell. Carry on enjoying your trek.
Alison Lessen
That hostel chap sounds great,....got to love an eccentric! you defintately wouldn't get me standing THAT close to the edge of that mountain!!!! Must be great meeting lots of new people while your travelling .......lovely to speak to you 'tother day too.
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