Santiago Chile

Flying over the vast Pacific Ocean is incredible.  I watched the sunset brilliant pink over the top of an enormous cloud bank and watched the sunrise delicate orange over a deep blue ocean spotted with ice.  At first I thought it must be waves breaking, but when they didn´t disappear I realised I was seeing ice... then I saw my first sight of land as we flew up the coast of South America from South to North.  I was excited to see the Andes mountains in the distance with peaks covered in snow, and then we saw the reason for the ice, a massive glacier making its way from the mountains down a valley, still a long way from the sea, but depositing ice into a lake and river.

Landing in Santiago was beautiful with the jagged snow topped mountains as a backdrop for smaller bare mountains, green, geometric patterned farmland filling the vallleys and then a city that was not as vast as I expected. 

Clearing customs and immigration was easy but they are VERY fussy about the state of the money you hand over.  We had to pay $61US tax when we landed. Max handed them a note with a tiny nick in the corner... rejected, I handed them a note with an even tiner split at the top where it had been folded... rejected.  We had to sort through the notes we had received from the travel exchange until w e found perfect ones before we could proceed.

Our hotel is clean and quiet and just acros the road from the airport - couldn`t be easier for an overnight stop.  We were delighted to discover a bottle of champagne, strawberries and chocloate in our room, along with a note from Lex our travel agent, wishing Max a Happy Birthday!  We enjoyed the champers, a shower and  by then we were shattered and in bed by 7.00pm local time.

I love trying newfoods when we travel but breakfast today was a beautiful spread just like we would see in any good hotel at home... except for the amazing sweet biscuits, cakes and pastries that were temptingly displayed beside the coffee.  I am afraid they are my weakness, but even I could not try them at 6am in the morning! :)  I did try the ´empanyardo´ paste ~ I think it is like quince paste - it was lovely.  The fruit here is better than I have had anywhere, truly fresh and so sweet!

We are off to catch our next flight to Punta Arenas - I hope we fly over the land - the mountains are an incredible sight.