We had read that Chile derived its name from the fact that the Andes lays to the east and can blow a wind so keen and chilling that it can cause sudden death to travellers. So, after 16 hours of flight time from Sydney to Santiago (via Auckland), our body clocks had malfunctioned and we were totally 
disorientated... Ande and his mountain of friends greeted us with a temperature so cool that it made Australia´s winter feel exotic. Upon disembarking the plane, we immediately reaped the benefits of Preya´s fluency in Spanish - we befriended a couple of taxi touts who took us to a lively area in Santiago. We stayed in barrio Bellavista - a student area littered with bars and 
restaurants, and we took the first hostel we could find (Hostel Rio Amazonas... we were actually quite fortunate in that it was also the choice of accommodation for Intrepid Travel groups allowing us to meet further travellers). As we wandered the cold streets in a zombified state searching for dinner, we were bewildered with how the outdoor bars and cafes were filled with locals drinking cold beers whilst wrapped up coats, scarves and gloves. The Chileans were definitely a tough breed of people and the lack of 
heating in many of the hotels was further evidence of this.Being the capital city, it was easy to soak in the culture with good food and great wine... which is exactly what we did for a few days whilst acclimatising to the new timezone. One morning, after our 
period of readjustment, we took a funicular climb to the summit of Cerro San Cristobal where we could appreciate panoramic views of the smog-filled city. It was obviously much cooler up on this hill but the local empanadas (fried pastries with different fillings) were 
warming and certainly did the trick. Two telefericos (cable-cars) later, we arrived in the tree-lined avenues of an eastern suburb where we hopped onto the metro (the underground system was clean, punctual, cheap and reminiscent of the one in Madrid). When we arrived in the centrally located Plaza des 
Armas, we visited the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art which chronicled thousands of years of pre-columbian civilisation throughout the Americas.
period of readjustment, we took a funicular climb to the summit of Cerro San Cristobal where we could appreciate panoramic views of the smog-filled city. It was obviously much cooler up on this hill but the local empanadas (fried pastries with different fillings) were 
warming and certainly did the trick. Two telefericos (cable-cars) later, we arrived in the tree-lined avenues of an eastern suburb where we hopped onto the metro (the underground system was clean, punctual, cheap and reminiscent of the one in Madrid). When we arrived in the centrally located Plaza des 
Armas, we visited the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art which chronicled thousands of years of pre-columbian civilisation throughout the Americas.During our stay in Santiago, we talked to several travellers whose stories about Venezuela swayed us into re-routing our next destination to Ecuador (and the Galapagos Islands) instead. The cold Chile winter was also beginning to take its toll and we were beckoning for warmer climates... but before we departed the country, we decided to travel west to the coastal town of Valpariso.
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