Sailing down the river Valparaiso

I was lucky that I saw as much of Valparaiso on my first day that I could, because sightseeing was off the agenda for the next day. I awoke to torrential rain, which flows down the streets of Valparaiso like a river.

Instead? I stayed inside, reading, watching movies, anything until I could brave up to the journey to the bus station, and the bus back to Santiago. This time the bus was full, as was the metro when I got back to Pajaritos. It was cold and a little gloomy when I got back to Santiago, but at least it wasn´t raining so much anymore. I just took a relaxing afternoon before heading out later for some pisco. I learnt that more than one is generally one too many!

The next morning was cold in Santiago. I spent the morning just walking around the town, before stopping in some cafes in Barrio Lastarria - I´d finally found somewhere in Santiago making decent coffee!

Before long it was time to head to the airport, for a scary flight over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. It´s only a half hour flight, but because of the height of the mountains in the region (over 6,000m) it´s a fairly tricky one. The plane took off and flew south of Santiago until we got enough altitude, before turning left, throwing us around over the Andes for about 15 minutes through some of the worst turbulence I´ve ever experienced, before turning left again and landing in Mendoza, and entering Argentina through the "Extranjero" line.