Santiago

We arrive in Santiago after our last bus journey (To be fair I actually really enjoyed the buses - got to see so much of the country that way). We manage to work out the Metro and take the underground to our hostel... Our hostel took a little time to find, being on the 6th floor we though it would be easy but the entrance was amoungst a massive row of fast food outlets - suprising as we were located right on the plaza....
View from our hostel - Plaza De Armas... what a view... we were right in the centre of Santiago!!

So with 2 days to go till we headed for New Zealand we didnt feel like doing to much..

The first day we took a free city tour around the city centre.

We saw a parade at the presedential palace...

Saw Chiles version of Christ (above a catholic university)!!

And came accross some nice parks - park between central and bella vista.

That evening we cooked dinner and made a few pisco sours on the balcony - how civilised!!

Our last full day in Santiago we visited Bella Vista (the up and coming / trendy area with all the bars and stuff!!
As we followed the pretty park walk we came across Ben (from Pucon) sitting on a park bench!!! Ben joined our trek to the top of the Crisobal hill to see the Virgin.

The Uphill walk took us about an hour. Not that easy in boat shoes or flip flops and the baking hot sun.
We spent most of the afternoon admiring the Virgin, the church and the tributes .....

We got a little lost on the way down but eventually made it down to the bottom and congratulated ourselves with a beer or many!!

Later that we met up with James (from Pucon) for a few more beers - the perfect end to our amazing 4 months in South America.....

Next day we caught our flight to New Zealand!!!!

So how to sum up our Journey in South America....
Amazing, impressive landscape and scenery (just stunning), easy to get about, so many great people, so much fun.... the best thing we ever did!!!!

Now for a new and probably very different experience in NZ!!!