So we headed from Mendoza back across to Chile to Santiago where we would catch our flight to New Zealand.
It didn't start off to well. Fairly hungover we boarded our bus, which was due to take 7 hours (the shortest one to date). In true South American style it actually took 10 hours, including 3 hours at the border crossing leading to two very grumpy English travellers on arrival in the city.
Unfortunately it didn't get much better the next day. We got up and set off to explore Santiago by foot.
After two days of walking around the city we came to the conclusion that it doesn't actually have that much too offer. Everyone has their own opinion of course but for us Santiago didn't hit the spot! It has to be our least favourite city so far, so much so that we ended up just heading back to our hostel to chill out by the pool.
If you do go, Bellavista is clearly the place to be. It has nice bars, quaint streets with a Bohemian vibe and San Cristobel hill to explore at the top. You do pay for the location though and as a result we opted to stay in a more central area of Barrio Brasil.
We decided to head to the beach to enjoy our last few days in South America. Vina del Mar is only an hour and half away from Santiago so seemed like the best bet.
On arrival we headed over to Renaca beach, a chic neighbourhood with lots of glamorous girls (Mike enjoyed the views!). We had a bit of a nightmare getting to our hostel after being ripped off by a local taxi driver. But hey if losing £20 for a 10 minute taxi ride that didn't actually drop us off at our desired destination is the worst thing that has happened to us is South America I'm pretty satisfied.
Our last three days involved sunbathing, sleeping, watching the sunset and relaxing on a beautiful beach - watching the sunset from our hostel veranda and sampling the local cuisine, tasty prawn empanadas as we prepared for the next leg of our journey.
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