Like a Thief in the Night

Evening all.

 

We´ve had a good couple of days in Santiago so far. It´s a very lively city filled with lots of beautiful people and great architecture. This afternoon we went up a gondola to the top of the Cerro San Cristobal, the tallest hill in town. The views were great and we could just about make out the Andes in the distance, although the smog did its best to hide them. After that we went for a nice meal in the Bellavista area, and were surprised to find them celebrating St Patrick´s day!

 

We´ve sketched out our plans for the next few days. On Tuesday we´re flying north to San Pedro de Atacama for a few days in the desert - its supposed to be really beautiful up there. Then on Saturday we fly back to Santiago, and probably on Easter Monday we´ll take a bus south to the Lake District, and then more buses across the Andes and down through Argentina towards Patagonia. Its subject to change, but at least we have a vague idea of what we´re doing now!

 

As expected things have been a bit harder work here than in NZ. People don´t tend to speak much English so we´ve been trying our best to get by in Spanish - so far so good. We were warned that crime might be a problem, and sure enough I discovered someone opening my bag last evening - it was on my back at the time! The incident has made us a bit nervous, but was probably a good thing so that we are a bit more careful from now on. June has been advised not to wear any jewellery, so unfortunately that opal ring is going to be under wraps for a couple of months.

 

I guess we´d better head to bed soon to try and get over the jet lag - we´ve had two very disrupted nights so far. Not feeling 100% comfortable at the moment, but looking forward to what´s ahead.....