I'm writing this blog looking out the 2nd story window of our hostel here in Santiago. This is a city alright, the street is full of traffic, lots of cheap Chinese motor bikes dicing with trucks and cars, everyone jumping on there horns at first chance. And it doesn't stop until late. It's loud and on top of that the hostel is pretty much right on top of a fire station. I guess with 5 Million people in the vicinity if everyone just as much farts it's going to be bloody loud. It sure is a different world here from sunny little Nelson.
The flight over from NZ was not too painful, helped hugely by the fact that we got upgraded free of charge upon boarding. When we got pulled aside at the counter both Rob and myself thought we where in trouble with attempting to overstay our 3 month tourist visa as the lady at check in had already given us a hard time with or 4 month return flights. Not to be, instead we felt like VIP's as we cruised in style up front in the big air bus. Rob thinks our travel agent may have pulled a few strings ( thanks a bunch Rhonda, we owe you) but I tried to explain that I was due for some good luck with flying after having a heap of LAN flights cancelled due to volcanoes earlier in the year.
A week before departing we found out that our bikes had been delayed 2 weeks at sea so we have a wait here in the city. Usually 2 days in a city is good for me so I'm sure by 2 weeks we will be itching to hit the start button on the bikes and get out of the smog. We've managed to get a few things sorted during our wait, Rob dropped by the NZ Consulate and voted for the legalise cannabis party and I visited my surgeon here that screwed my elbow back together when I broke it while mtn biking earlier in the year. We also went to TGL freight who are handling the unloading of our bikes at this end. We walked into the office expecting a difficult time due to our not so good Spanish but we were instead welcomed in the door and greeted by our first names! Thanks to Rich at Casabella Hostel (out near the port where we will stay later next week) who had already been in contact with TGL and warned the office that 2 very good looking Kiwi's with bad Spanish would be turning up.
So we still have a heap of time to kill, thinking of heading out of town for a few days of exploring. Hopefully we have no further delays and get the show on the road soon.
The flight over from NZ was not too painful, helped hugely by the fact that we got upgraded free of charge upon boarding. When we got pulled aside at the counter both Rob and myself thought we where in trouble with attempting to overstay our 3 month tourist visa as the lady at check in had already given us a hard time with or 4 month return flights. Not to be, instead we felt like VIP's as we cruised in style up front in the big air bus. Rob thinks our travel agent may have pulled a few strings ( thanks a bunch Rhonda, we owe you) but I tried to explain that I was due for some good luck with flying after having a heap of LAN flights cancelled due to volcanoes earlier in the year.
A week before departing we found out that our bikes had been delayed 2 weeks at sea so we have a wait here in the city. Usually 2 days in a city is good for me so I'm sure by 2 weeks we will be itching to hit the start button on the bikes and get out of the smog. We've managed to get a few things sorted during our wait, Rob dropped by the NZ Consulate and voted for the legalise cannabis party and I visited my surgeon here that screwed my elbow back together when I broke it while mtn biking earlier in the year. We also went to TGL freight who are handling the unloading of our bikes at this end. We walked into the office expecting a difficult time due to our not so good Spanish but we were instead welcomed in the door and greeted by our first names! Thanks to Rich at Casabella Hostel (out near the port where we will stay later next week) who had already been in contact with TGL and warned the office that 2 very good looking Kiwi's with bad Spanish would be turning up.
So we still have a heap of time to kill, thinking of heading out of town for a few days of exploring. Hopefully we have no further delays and get the show on the road soon.
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