Santiago- Wine and a Reunion!

So we finally left Brazil and took our last flight within South America from Rio to Santiago in Chile. It was a miracle that we made it to Chile- we had a LOT of problems with our tickets and flights due to STA Travel in London being completely useless- but with a huge amount of help from our parents we finally made it on a plane! Santiago was pretty cold after Brazil´s scorching heat but it was quite a nice change- it was really nice to feel a fresh breeze. We had 10 days in Chile before catching our flight to New Zealand so we decided to spend about a week in Santiago and a few days in nearby town Valparaiso.

Santiago was great fun, we stayed in a really good hostel with great owners. We really enjoyed walking around the city- which was lovely and green and very clean. There were some great old buildings and strangely enough there was a castle in the middle of the city- we walked up to the top and had amazing views over the city and the gigantic towering snow capped Andes overlooking us.

The highlight of our time in Santiago was Greg and Elise coming to see us!! We had sadly parted company back in Panama after nearly a month together and we had tried to make plans to meet up again once they were in Argentina and we were in Chile. Unfortunately due to lack of time we couldn´t go back to Argentina to see them, so somehow we managed to persuade them to come over to Santiago for a few days. They arrived on the Wednesday and told us they could only stay 2 nights as they were running out of time to see Argentina and had to get on. It was so amazing to see them again!! We had such a good time with them and really wanted them to stay longer! Our first day together we had a picnic out in the sunny park and consumed a large amount of very cheap good red wine, and of course by about 5pm we were sat in a sushi bar eating a large amount of sushi! We then polished off a few more bottles of red and had a crazy Team Quad style night out which ended about 6am. The next day was spent mostly in bed...which the exception of a taxi ride to Burger King and the Sushi restaurant for supplies!

Chris and I noted that Elise and Greg had done nothing about sorting out a bus to Argentina for the next day as planned..so we kept quiet and hoped they´d stay longer! Hehe! And they did..the next day we had a great trip out to one of the many wineries in the area. It was called Undurraga and was in the most beautiful setting- the scenery around us was lovely and it was an amazing sunny day. We walked all around the vineyard and were shown the fermentation process, the cellars and then the best bit at the end- the tastings! After tasting as much as possible we bought a couple of bottles of our favourite- the Carmenere, a wine exclusive to Chile, and sat out in the gardens of the winery having a very civilised drink or three! I think we started drinking that day about 3pm and after another round of Sushi and another crazy night out we were still drinking at 5am..a long, fun day!! We decided we had to make the most of the lovely cheap South American wine before heading of to New Zealand...where they...also have lots of wine. Mmmn.

So Greg and Elise stayed ANOTHER day..and we had more Sushi and drank more wine..but after 5 days it had to come to an end the useless pair eventually got on a bus to Argentina! It was sad knowing we wont see them for such a long time, although I think after a bit of gentle persuasion they may turn up in New Zealand!! Fingers crossed!

Chris and I left Santiago and got on the 2 hour bus to Valparaiso for a few days of recovery after the momentous Team Quad reunion!