Santiago Nov 18 - 21

So after a couple of years of being unreasonably NZ-based, it seemed time to hit the road again. Yes, yes there was the small matter of the cricket world cup in the West Indies in 2007 but I am not counting that for some unduly arbitrary reason which I cannot justify, but I digress. It´s my first time of ever writing a blog, so there will be hiccups for me to contend with and general boredom for you to contend with, but you may or may not wish to bear with me. It´s great to be travelling with Steve - he´s on a bit of a global odyssey and is a bit of a fan of South America, so it makes all manner of sense for us to get on the road together, and we´ll be joined by another mate of mine Craig. So we arrived in Santiago, Chile on November 18 and I was immediately struck by how much more relaxed it was than I expected. Streets were wide, relatively uncrowded, and clean, and whilst many people were going about their business it was in an un-hurried and non-frenetic way - something I had not envisioned in a city with a population around that of New Zealand. Steve and I hooked up in the hostel with YK - an enthusiatic Singaporean urologist who was attending a conference in Santiago and then doing 3 weeks of travel in Chile. On our first evening we did the obligatory testing of the local beer as well as Pisco Sour which I believe is a brandy-ish concoction but tasted similar to a Margarita. The evening meal introduced us to the gigantic sizes of meal - Steve charged into his steak, eggs, onions, chips, and sausages for 20 minutes and you could still barely see the plate. My pork was unusually presented in a huge hunk of ciabatta. Well, until I realised that it was actually all pork. One normally expresses meat sizes in terms of grams - perhaps 350g or so for a meal. Here I think they express it in terms of percentage of the animal you are consuming. My pork probably around 2% of a pig. In Santiago we did plenty of walking - in truth there´s nothing incredibly beautiful or ´must-see´ although the two hills - Cerro Saint Lucia (cerro = hill) and Cerro San Cristobal both afforded fantastic views of the city, which sprawls as one might expect. There´s the obligatory Plaza here and there - the grassy ones are very popular with trysting lovers who love a PDA. Kissing and holding hands are de rigeur, even on the subway you may only be half a meter away from some couple going at it hammer and tongs. Speaking of the subway, its something the locals are justifiably proud of - very clean and cheap, and you never have to wait more than 2 minutes for a train. Northern Line eat your heart out. The locals are very friendly - happy to practice their English, and never pestering you for anything. Gringos aren´t overly common here, and with blue eyes and non-black hair being not overly well represented in their gene pool, there was the occasional approach from a group of women to say hello. Even my ´hairstyle´seemed to have some degree of credence here. I might move here. We got in to a bit of the famed South American nightlife on our second night, although the music and decor of the nightclub we eventually ended up in was more akin to 1980s New Zealand with chrome, mirrors, and disco and pop music to boot. I surprised myself by attracting the attentions of a most beguiling young woman who I danced with for some time, talked a lot with, and then managed to come to the inexplicable conclusion at the end of the night, to the absolute astonishment and incredulity of Craig and Steve, that I could not accept her further invitation because, wait for it, I thought she was a hooker. Oh boy did I regret that incredible non-sequitur in the cold light of day ! Might have to take it easier on those Pisco Sours if it does that to my logic. So all in all Santiago was a pleasant welcome to a new continent for me. They say it is the ´least threatening´ of the South American capitals, and it is not at all hard to see why. From here we are heading over the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina to put together a bit of a plan.