Bienvenidos a Chile..!!! Although let me tell you it did take quite a while to get to Chile...why? Because of the countrys very strict controls about bringing in fruits and vegetables. We pretty much spend 5 borders at the border, where our entire truck and luggage was searched by the staff and a very cute little sniffy snif dog called Max. So it wasnt till late that we arrived on the Valentines day night in Santiago.. where it was a mission to find a restaurant as for some reason most restaurants tend to be closed in sundays in Santiago. The way home was quite funny as we first had 2 stray dogs following our group at the next street corner another 2 joined us, the following corner another 2... so by the time we got to the hotel we had like 12 dogs walking with us. One of the girls (miss you dear Shanny shannone) has a heart for these poorly fed dogs and always strokes them which is why they hung out the hotel in anticipation!... it was so cute in Mendoza she bought a proper Sandwich for a dog because he looked really skinny. There are soooo many stray dogs in South America so I think its actually quite nice that somebody cares.
The next day we went off to explore the city which was nice but definately not one of South Americas jewels. It had quite an american feel to it and we couldnt believe it when we found a Starbucks. wowwwwwwwww. which of course we had to treat ourselves to. A major attraction for the male population are the ;coffee with legs; which are sort of the Hooters of coffee shops.. well not as much but the girls where these really tight dresses which just about cover their bum... There are quite a few alright ones in the main centre and then special ones where you may purchase other services as well.. Unfortunately the option to purchase ;other ; services also seemed to be available at our hotel... I was already slightly suspicious when we saw this group of rather very dressed up sexy looking girls at the hotel lobby a couple of times during the day who spend quite a bit of time using this special phone at reception.. We had to change rooms for that night as new group members arrived but one person from our group said that some of the ladies are in teh room right next to us.... so veyr bizarrly their phone rang then knocks on the door and a hell of a party next door till quite late.... our tour guides asked and apparently they were ;special; peruvian ladies for Peruvian clients... and yes we were lucky enough to we having the room right next to their ;office;...
but back to Chile. It is quite noticable that Chile is a lot richer than the other South American countries. Apparently they are disliked by all their neighbouring countries I think much of it being related to fights over territory. You even have got Wifi at petrol stations!! Yesterdya we stopped at some waterfalls which are named the little Iguassu Falls and made our way to Pucon today. Here the main attraction is to hike up a volcano which we are all very keen to do. Unfortunately it has been raining all day and is forecasted to stay this way for the next couple of days so its not certain that we will be able to go.. but fingers crossed.
we will then head to Puerto Montt to take a ferry and visit a couple of national parks further south.
