kizzie26

Hi

This is just a quick post to say thank you to everybody that has helped me over the past 9 months or so. I arrived at my apartment about an hour ago after a very long journey from home. I stayed at a hotel near to Heathrow airport after work on Tuesday so it was an early start with last minute packing and lugging my luggage to work with me. On Wednesday, I had an 11:05am flight from London to Miami (10hrs), then a 4 hour layover with another 8.5hrs flight from Miami to Santiago but I made it safely.

I will be posting what I am doing whilst I am here and will continue when I am in Brazil, so if you are slightly interested or bored, please follow along.

I will be back later but now I have to go and try and find Wally in the main square.

Kelly

pookymimi

Hi,

How long will you be in Santiago and in Chile.
I arrive in Santiago the 28th staying home for 5 weeks in the event you want tips and meet.

Mia

kizzie26

Hi Mia - thanks for reaching out to me but unfortunately I am only here for 3 whole days.

Day 1 - Ok, so it is now 9:22pm and I am knackered. I didn't end up finding Wally (tours 4 tips) as I was running about 15mins late due to a card not being accepted at a particular cash point machine, so I ended up doing a bus tour instead which drove around Santiago covering 12 stops but it only stopped at 10 due to some protesting, in hindsight I think that was better for me due to just arriving and feeling quite tired. The tour took about 2.5hours and I just sat on the bus and enjoyed the ride. After I got back to Playa de Arms I went back to my apartment and relaxed for a couple of hours....there was no point me trying to attempt sleeping. At 3:45pm I was picked up for my horse riding in Chile experience, I booked an evening ride and it was great. I don't think I have ever been on a horse before and especially not riding in the Andes mountains. It was a 3hr ride and there was a couple of heart skipping a bit moment but I had to keep telling myself that these horses know what they are doing.

Overall my day has been good but I am definitely ready to sleep, although I am not sure if that will happen now as there seems to be some really loud music playing from somewhere outside....right now Lionel Ritchie is playing as I type.

Anyway, that is it for today, tomorrow I am going on a wine tour.

kizzie26

Day 2 - I had to be ready for 8:45am in order to be picked up by uncorked wine tours. It wasn't cheap but to me it was worth it!. It was based in the Casablanca valleys and we stopped at 3 different vine yards. Bodegas, Kingston and house casa del vino. It was a long day and we tasted 15 different types of wines! It was a lot and if anybody goes on this tour and consumed all the wines.....they would be screwed. The dinner provided was great and it consisted of 4differenr courses. The Rabbit in the pastry as a nibble was very nice but I didn't know it was Rabbit until after. Our group consisted of Americans and Canadians and we all got on very well.

We returned to our apartments at 7pm. I chilled for a couple of hours and then walked a couple of blocks at Dancing Molly's suggestion to Lasteria. Lots of people out, I got an outside seat somewhere and ordered my first Pisco sour but I also had to order food so I opted for the cheapest because I wast hungry due to the 4 course meal on the wine tour which was Chips. In England Chips is fried Potatoes as in fish and chips but what I got was what we call crisps....and there was a lot. Anyway, 2 Pisco sours later which was tasty and strong I then walked the 2 blocks home. I didn't carry a bag, just had a little bit of money in my pockets and ordered a pizza to take home along the way.

Today, I plan to go to the fish market, walk up a big hill near my apartment (don't know the exact name yet), later I may visit Valpariso for the 3pm walking tour a and hopefully visit patio bellavista this evening. I will let you know.

kizzie26

Day 3 - I had a bit of a late start due to tiredness, I left the apartment about 11am in search of a cashpoint, but every single one I tried wouldn't work for me including the Santander I had withdrew money from on day 1!. My plan was to go to Valpariso for the 3pm walking tour but time was passing by quickly so it soon became obvious that I would not be able to go. In the end I went to Barrio belavista and rode the funicular up for 2600cpl return, the view up there was amazing and I definatly recommend you doing it. Once I left here I made my way to the central market and had some awesome clams, by this time it was around 6pm so I walked back to the apartment as I needed to pack and that was my 3 days.

I found Chile cheap, I loved the wine tour, expensive but worth it in my opinion! The horse riding was great too but as I mentioned it is not for the faint hearted. I had no problems with anybody and I found the locals to be helpful, if I asked a question with my very limited Spanish, and that person couldn't answer, that person would ask another person, and then that person would ask someone else, in the end the 4th person actually took me to the place I was after. All in all, I loved Chile but I should have stayed longer.