It Was Certainly Not The Case of 5 Men And A Little Lady!

View of Santiago city from top of San Cristobal Metropolitan Park
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So I left Auckland (NZ) at 5:25pm and after an 11 hour flight arrived in Santiago (Chile) at 12:45pm....earlier than I had left on the same day!!!! (Auckland is 13 hours ahead of London and Santiago 3 hours behind - I find it so wierd that Santiago is only 3 hours behind especially since NY is 5 hours behind and Santiago is further west than NY!!! Not sure how that works at all!!!)

So you would think that I would be exhausted from the jet lag (considering I fitted in 2 movies, 2 meals and slept for only a couple of hours on the plane at most!!!) and be in bed by 9 o´clock would you?!

The highest point on San Cristobal Metropolitan Park
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Haha...well, I was in bed by 9.......9am the next morning that is!!! Because, that first evening.....I went out partying until 5am in the morning!!! Haha!!!! Michelle who had arrived in Santiago a few days before me had found the most amazing hostel (Andes Hostel in Barrio Bellas Artes in case anyone goes to Santiago) and met a bunch of really lovely people.....2 Uruguayans, a Peruvian brother and sister, a Kiwi and a Brazilian who was touring South America to DJ in the clubs. So guess who invited us to this club he was Djing in that night.....and it wasn´t just any club.....but one of the nicest clubs in Santiago.....although....eugh eugh eugh.....it was techno music the entire night!!! Techno music is not my cup of tea at all.......in my humble opinion, I think techno music is for people who can´t dance....because seriously, the only thing you can do is to bop along or flap your arms up and down!!!!

View of Santiago city from top of San Cristobal Metropolitan Park with the Andes in the distance
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Haha...but we had a good time despite the awful music (it´s funny when you dance silly because you don´t know any other way to dance to techno...so there I was jumping up and down and waving my arms like a mad woman....at the same time giggling my head off!). In fact, we were abit of a novelty at the club since as we soon realised that there aren´t that many oriental people at all in Santiago (although there are still chinese restaurants - what a surprise - not!) let alone 2 female ones partying at the clubs! Haha and I haven´t read Michelle´s blog so I don´t know what she has said but I´m denying everything! I did NOT get chatted up by 5 Chilean men! They came up to chat to me and one invited us to a bbq the next day and gave me his number but that is all! But I have to say South American men are alright!! Tall dark and handsome.....haha....like our cutie receptionist at the hostel who would wink at us everytime he saw us....hehe.

Tram ride up to the top of San Cristoba Metropolitan Park
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So we didn´t end up getting back unti 5am which in South American terms is damn early! But by now I had been up for 35 hours and although I was good and drank only 2 glasses of wine and had been sticking to coke....by then even the caffeine was not enough to keep my eyes open! What didn´t help though was when our Kiwi roomie (who stayed on at the club) got back at 10am and proceeded to tease me about breakfast knowing full well I still needed about another 12 hours of sleep! If I had something hard next to my bed I would have thrown it straight at his head!

Little plaza of shops that we found wandering the streets
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Santiago is a huge place and unfortunately, with Andes being such a comfortable hostel and having such a great bunch of people, we didn´t get to see that much except to wander the streets, go up the cable car to San Cristobal Hill Metropolitan Park for incredible views of the city and oh of course, enjoy the South American cuisine. Oh my....I don´t think vegetarians could come to South America and leave still being a vegetarian......it´s meat, meat, meat, meat, meat, meat!!!!! And I had my first empanadas which are  cornish pasty looking things filled with (usually) meat (al pino has beef, onion, egg and an olive, but there are also plain beef ones, ham and cheese and if you´re lucky, you might find a mushroom one somewhere!).

The main plaza
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Oh and a knowledge of Spanish would be good. But even if you do not know a single word except for ´si´and ´no´, it´s good to try. I´ve been walking around with my Spanish phrasebook like it´s the bible and the locals really appreciate it when you at least try to say a few things in Spanish! South Americans really are such friendly people although being a chinese female who smiles alot generally helps with things too!