I´ve arrived in Santiago! Wooohooo! I´ve already had a crazy 24 hours. In fact, I was lucky to even get here...
The day before I was due to fly I attempted to check into my flight online. It didn´t work for some reason so I thought I´d just check in at the airport desk. Luckily, my father convinced me to call the airline and try to check in to beat the queues.... I called up to find that the flight had been cancelled. And no one had told me! The next 4 hours involved frantically calling people at Iberia to try and sort it out....fortunately I managed to book on a different flight, but it was touch and go at one point.
Anyway, I got here in the end, so it´s all good!
The weather is ridiculously beautiful - I stepped off the plane to find blue skies and 28 degree sunshine. So far I am yet to see a cloud....I could get used to this. Santiago is a very laid back city. Everyone spends their time sitting in cafes or bars chatting away to eachother. I got to the hostel at 10am, dropped my bag and joined a walking tour. There isn´t really a huge amount to see in the way of sights in the city - we walked past various government buildings and it was all a bit average. The highlight for me was "Cafe con Piernas" (coffee with legs), which is a rather strange concept. You basically drink coffee that is served by girls with long legs. It´s a cross between a cafe and a strip club - ridiculous!
I spent the rest of the afternoon drinking beer with some people who I met on the walking tour and watching the world go by. At 4ish I went back to the hostel to check into my room - I walked in, introduced myself to the people in the room. They invited me to go swimming with them so I went straight out again! We got a taxi to the top of a mountain, where the pool is, to find that we were 4 minutes late and it was closed. We found a great spot overlooking the city and drank some beer, swapping stories. This city really is beautiful - Santiago is surrounded by Andean mountains that are snow-capped all year round.
In the evening it was BBQ time at the hostel. Huge slabs of meat - my kind of BBQ! The usual drinking games applied and we all ended up in a club until 5am. The locals know how to party! The club didn´t even get busy until 3am and I ended up speaking to a nurse and an air traffic controller, who were both working the next morning (glad I found that out after I´d landed).
Right, I better continue trying to get over this huge hangover. The hostel breakfast of 3 different kinds of egg has not helped.... Next time I will post something more interesting!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Off again :¬)
So, after three and a half years of hard graft in the city (yes, it's a tough job attending work drinks every Friday), I'm hitting the road again! My bosses have been good enough to give me a year's unpaid leave so I'm going to explore Central & South America.
As with the last few times I've been away, I thought I'd keep up the blogging. Even though I have the literacy skills of a small child, I really enjoy jotting down my thoughts & pics - hopefully some of it is worth reading. At the very least (if I have written something recently) you will know I haven't been kidnapped, contracted a ridiculous disease or fallen down a really big hole that someone has dug on the beach.
As you can see, I've started a new blog (the old one got a bit messed up when Google took over Blogger). If you want to see what I got up to on my last trip you can find the old blog at http://www.si-flyin2.blogspot.com/. Unfortunately some of the posts aren't showing up, so there might be a few gaps, and the pictures might be a bit messed up depending on which browser you use.
Not much to write so far, as I don't leave until Friday. The current plan is to turn up to Heathrow in time to catch my flight to Santiago, Chile. After that I'll play it by ear.
A potentially interesting fact is that I've almost spent/allocated all the money I've saved over the past 6 months. By the start of 2012 I had managed to amass the princely sum of £3,500 (just shy of my £10,000 target). I then bought:
- a flight (-£750)
- 6 months worth of contact lenses (-£300)
- a new tooth (-£300, don't ask)
- malaria stuff (-£100)
- and got some jabs (-£125)
I've reserved about £800 for Spanish lessons and £500 to do the Inca Trail, leaving me with around £625 + £1,000 or so from this month's pay cheque. This works out at almost £5 a day to live on. Hello Hilton Hotel.
Anyway, I better sign out and continue trying to convince my mother that I don't need to spend £300 on travel insurance. If you didn't read my last blog and want to know what I got up to, I have attempted to sum up the whole 2 years with a few pictures below. I've also attached a video of me jumping into a canyon attached to a plastic garden chair - it's just another day in New Zealand....
Next post will be from warmer climates. Until then, take it easy...
As with the last few times I've been away, I thought I'd keep up the blogging. Even though I have the literacy skills of a small child, I really enjoy jotting down my thoughts & pics - hopefully some of it is worth reading. At the very least (if I have written something recently) you will know I haven't been kidnapped, contracted a ridiculous disease or fallen down a really big hole that someone has dug on the beach.
As you can see, I've started a new blog (the old one got a bit messed up when Google took over Blogger). If you want to see what I got up to on my last trip you can find the old blog at http://www.si-flyin2.blogspot.com/. Unfortunately some of the posts aren't showing up, so there might be a few gaps, and the pictures might be a bit messed up depending on which browser you use.
Not much to write so far, as I don't leave until Friday. The current plan is to turn up to Heathrow in time to catch my flight to Santiago, Chile. After that I'll play it by ear.
A potentially interesting fact is that I've almost spent/allocated all the money I've saved over the past 6 months. By the start of 2012 I had managed to amass the princely sum of £3,500 (just shy of my £10,000 target). I then bought:
- a flight (-£750)
- 6 months worth of contact lenses (-£300)
- a new tooth (-£300, don't ask)
- malaria stuff (-£100)
- and got some jabs (-£125)
I've reserved about £800 for Spanish lessons and £500 to do the Inca Trail, leaving me with around £625 + £1,000 or so from this month's pay cheque. This works out at almost £5 a day to live on. Hello Hilton Hotel.
Anyway, I better sign out and continue trying to convince my mother that I don't need to spend £300 on travel insurance. If you didn't read my last blog and want to know what I got up to, I have attempted to sum up the whole 2 years with a few pictures below. I've also attached a video of me jumping into a canyon attached to a plastic garden chair - it's just another day in New Zealand....
Next post will be from warmer climates. Until then, take it easy...
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