Whilst in New York, we met a couple of guys called Jose and Eugenio who were from Santiago. When we flew into Santiago they came and picked us ip from the airport and took us to our hostel. We stayed at la Casa Roja which was just outside the centre of Santiago. The hostel was brilliant, it had a huge outside bbq area with a pool, swim up bar and even a jacuzzi! All for only 7 pound a night.

On the Sunday we went round to Jose's house for dinner with his family. He lived in a huge house with a swimming pool and even a butler who waited on us all night. There was a variation of different dishes, some of whuch were the local. All of it was really nice and we both ate far too much. It made me realise how much i miss mothers home cooking! The novelty of eating out all the time has definately worn off.

Went to Valparaiso the next day which was the nearest beach resort. It is very well known for surfing but when we were there the weather wasn't great so only got to the beach for half a day. Was a nice place but due to the weather we were quite happy to get back to Santiago and the sunshine!

Went up to a view point when we got back to Santiago looking out over the whole of the city. All the buildings are very small so we were able to see across for miles. We all watched the sunrise there which was very nice. Would have liked to go down to southern Chile, which is supposed to be beautiful, but didn't have the time so we are going to do that on our next trip!