27th - 29th April Santiago

Arrived in Santiago Chile at 6.30am. After a quick breakfast on the bus we checked into our next Hotel in the heart of the old town quarters. After a quick shower we headed off on a walking tour of the old city. We first went to Cerro Sta Lucia - the site where the city was founded in 1541.
From here we were able to see great views of the city and the Andes. We then met up with half of our group and continued walking around the city admiring the grand old buildings, churches etc. There was a group of scouts marching in the main square. We caught the metro train to a different part of the city for our farewell lunch for Jon, Greg, Thomas and Linda who were leaving the trip. We were to go out for drinks at night for Thomas and Linda but the weather was so bad we had a room party instead. Will attach a short video later.

28th David not feeling too well after last nights party so he didn´t leave the room until 2pm. Cat went down for breakfast and to see off Thomas and Linda. At 3pm we headed out for a walk through the shopping district where we were amazed at the number of shoe shops. We also visited the Palace which was once the mint and Iglesia San Francisco the oldest church in Santiago. We had our meeting for the next part of our journey. Max, Charles and Asher from London, Simon and Liz from Nottingham and Donna from New York. After the meeting we headed off to dinner with Simon and Liz at an italian restaurant close bye.

29th We took the hop on and off bus tour of Santiago with Gui, Vicki, Tanja and Amanda. We started at the Iglesia san francisco and traveled around the city till we got to the funicular where we alighted the bus and bought our tickets for the funicular and telerifico (gondola). The Gondola didn´t start till 12pm so we decided to have a walk around Bellavista a quaint little Barrio (suburb) with many restaurants, cafes, small shops and colourful old houses. We travelled the funicular up to Cerro San Cristobal where there was a large statue of the Virgin Mary. Amazing views of Santiago and the snow covered mountains behind. Due to the smog it was very diffucult to take pictures that showed the scenery. We took the gondola up and back across the hillside and had lunch in a Baverian beer garden. After taking the funicular back down we caught the bus past the old markets and then back to the begining again. We had to track down an exchange place to buy some Bolivianos for our boarder crossing. After trying 10 or so with no luck, we finally found one where we were able to buy a small amount.