Around the World III

Day 21 - Sun 22 Apr 07 - Chile

We had an earthquake last night, well, 06:20. It shook my bed and was strong enough to wake me up! The guy on reception said it was a "4". Up at 07:00 for breakfast, and then out on the streets to do the walking tour of Santiago. Dare I say there isn't a great deal to see, so I'm going to ring LAN and see if I can move my flight forward to tomorrow. That would give me five full days in San Pedro De Atacama - maybe way too much, but there's a possibility of getting into Bolivia from there, and then onwards into Peru.

I tried to use a street pay phone to ring LAN, but most weren't working and the one that was would not accept my cash. In the end I went into a posh hotel and asked if I could use their phone. They said yes, and LAN couldn't have been more helpful - I now have a flight for tomorrow.

I then headed off to Bellavista, and interesting part of town with a lot of Spanish style highly coloured buildings. Took the funicular railway up to the top of the hill. There's a huge statue of the Virgin Mary, and some good views over the city, but the mountains in the distance are covered in smog/mist. It's rather cold at the top of the hill, so back down to find a shop to get some food. Back to the hotel for a kip. Well, I do have to be up at 04:30 tomorrow.

Back out later, and the main shopping drag is now buzzing with people, and some of the shops are open. I purchase a 1GB Xd card for my camera for 21,0000 (should have got it in HK!) and get 70,000 out of the ATM. I've no idea what cash I'm going to need in San Pedro de Atacama. Back to use the Internet cafe that's appeared next door to my hotel - I'm sure it wasn't there yesterday. However the PC keep crashing, so I give up. I pay my bill at the hotel so I don't have to do it tomorrow, and go an pack my bag.