Santiago

The bus ride to Santiago was just incredible, we took the day bus instead of the night bus on purpose because we thought that crossing the Andes would be worth seeing and we were not disappointed. The bus wound slowly up from the Argentina side though incredible mountains of red and yellow rocks, following a river and an old railway track that looked as though it had suffered through its shares of rock slides and avalanches. As we got neared the top, ski lifts started appearing. It looked like it would make for some good, steep skiing but I don't think I would pay to hop on those lifts. We finally reached the highest point of the pass and the Chilean border control.
Here we were ordered off the bus to go through passport control, we were stamped into Chile by a woman who was clearly dead inside and didn't say a word despite or cheery faces. For some reason James was sure Chile was going to reject us but we got our stamps, so far so good. We hoped back on the bus and drove approximately 10 minutes to customs. We had been told Chile was really strict about food and stuff so we hid/left our packet of biscuits on the bus assuming they would clean the bus out. We got out and stood in two lines with our hand luggage in front of us and watched our bags go through scanners. Our packs passed with our problems, and our hand luggage wasn't even looked at. We were herded back on the bus and it seems the bus wasn't checked either, as our biscuits were also let into Chile. Win.
The trip down the Chilean side of the Andes was a little more nerve racking as it seemed to be much steeper and headed down 29 switch backs with no barriers, from the top floor of the double decker bus it didn't seem like there was a lot between us and a fiery death but I should have had more faith in our bus driver. The ski fields on the Chilean side were crazier still with lifts crossing the roads as well.
I also thought that Chile would be lusher than Argentina being on the west coast, and it probably is further south but all I saw was an abundance of cacti.
We arrived in Santiago around 4pm, it is a huge modern city with an easy metro system and we made it to our hostel in no time. There is nothing easier when you don't speak the language than a metro system, especially since we were given a card in Mendoza, we barely had to interact with anyone. Our hostel was in a fancy, rich, arty sort of neighbourhood and strolled through a craft market on our way to the supermarket to buy beers and veges for dinner. Its probably all the alcohol, but no matter how many veges we eat I still

feel unhealthy but the hostel we were in was fun and social so there was a lot of drinking in Chile.
On our first day we headed up a Cerro San Cristobal, a hill in the city with a big Virgin Mary on top. Chile definitely has way more South American vibes, as in what you'd imagine as a stereotype. More Catholic, etc, than Argentina which had more European vibes.

James's bad knee made it all the way up which was exciting, although he struggled going down but it bodes well for more hikes in the future. In the afternoon we did a walking tour around the city. Santiago, like most South American cities it seems is a mix of old and new, with lots of its older buildings damaged by earthquakes and then replaced. And obviously the touristy areas are the wealthy areas.

In the evening we met up with Alejandro, a Chilean friend who we worked with in Australia, he picked us up and took us out of the touristy area so we could have a real Chilean meal. A hot dog. Actually a completo to be exact, which is a sausage in a bun, or a pimento/heart of palm in my case, covered in avocado, tomato and mayonnaise. Actually delicious! We promised to catch up with Alejandro on Friday so the next day we headed to Valparaiso.
Take us to the ocean...