Where on earth is Carmen Santiago?

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31.10.06 – It’s my birthday and where am I? Lima. Oh crap. My shower was disturbed by a girl with a question. “Is any of your stuff missing?” ‘No’ I replied, “because my phone has been stolen” she announced. She then trashed the hostel, slamming doors and throwing chairs. She didn’t find her phone. A nice birthday treat - $35 additional airport tax to fly to Santiago!

I arrived at the airport and was taken by shuttle bus to the Bellavista Hostel in the Bellavista district. Wow! My research had really paid off into finding an amazing hostel to celebrate my birthday. It’s a fantastic hostel full of very cool artwork, loads of rooms, a massive living room and the best roof terrace in the world! Minutes after arriving, I was inflating orange and black balloons for the Halloween party. It was a beautiful hot day in Santiago and I took a walk into town through the botanical gardens. That night was exactly what I’d been looking for… loads of cool friendly people, food, drink and music. I met James (an 18 year old from Bristol, en route to working in Sydney for 2+ years), Kate and Steph (from Melbourne) and of course the living legend that is Paulo (an Italian who’d lived in USA for 4 years and had an American accent). The evening ended with the first of many Jenga tournaments.

"She's just FAT"

1.11.07 – I walked in the municipal park of Santiago with James and Kate (the park is essentially a mountain of forest with a statue of the Virgin Mary on top). Some classic songs reared their ugly musical heads such as 2 Can Play at that Game. If you want great food in the Bellavista area go to Back Stage in the Bellavista patio. A really good chile burger with potato wedges. Fantastic. Jenga, round 2.

2.11.07 – To the vineyard. There’s something inexplicably wonderful about being drunk in the middle of the day, on fine wine, surrounded by pensioners and ‘wine buffs’, with a bigoted (but highly amusing with it) son of Italian diplomats and 2 crazy Australian girls. The Concha Y Toro vineyard is a surprisingly tasteful place, albeit with a slightly dubious ‘voice of the wine devil’ sound and lights show. It cost CLP 6000 to get in, which was a bit steep, but it cost us less than 1000 to get there on public transport. Prior to round 3 of the much hyped Jenga tournament, we were joined by Dan and Jo. Dan had his locker broken into and all his stuff (passport, iPod etc) nicked, only to be mugged for his wallet by a transvestite gypsy just a couple of days later! Shit really does happen. We accidentally ended up in a gay club that night. We should have realised sooner, as the guys got in for free, but the girls had to pay. Highly entertaining though.

3.11.07 - Me and Paulo took a couple of buses to Vina del Mar. Paulo talked excessively about sex for the “sheer hell of it”. With the now infamous phrase “she’s just fat” appearing often. We spent the night on the sofas because we didn’t book and the hostel was full, but it resulted in a free night.

5.11.07 – Santiago is a great city but there’s very little to see, so I just relaxed at the hostel for a couple of days and took a bus to Puçon, south from Santiago. It was a pretty comfortable bus, especially at CLP 7000 for a 10 hour journey!

View my Santiago photos at http://www.drivehq.com /sharing/ShareLogon.aspx ?key=554790/4w6qb8ntpbbd (please only view the pics do not download them)