Santiago - like London but better

February 6th, Santiago Chile

A relaxed day in this beautiful warm city. We woke up to a luxurious breakfast in the luxurious zen garden and felt great. We chilled out all morning as it was pretty hot outside, finally making our way to a traditional sandwich restaurant that Sophia recommended. It was pretty cool, felt like an old school diner, older ladies with uniforms and hairnets and a young waiter even gave me a note trying to flirt with me (giggle giggle - though left after I confirmed I was with Bernie!).

We walked around a bit and there are so many ice cream shops with exotic flavours here, my dream! Ofcourse I still only got chocolate, would've got mango but they didn't have this basic flavour.

Back at the hotel, the owner was having a party so Bernie and I tried to sit in a corner inconspicuously drinking a bottle of wine in the garden but we soon got pulled into the festivities. You know what I miss the most in Chile? SPANISH!!! They speak so fast and skip so many letters with a lot of slang. Basically we don't understand most of what they're saying and our most used phrase is "mas lento por favor" (slower please). It's quite hard having conversations and I really respect all the people who try, it can be quite frustrating even to talk about the weather! Their broken English is much better than our hard learned Spanish. Thanks to enthusiastic Bernie for talking so much, people instantly love him and it makes our lives so much easier. Also thanks to the bottles of pisco he keeps buying, my new favorite drink.

The best part is that even in Chile, everyone has heard of Goa! So Mama, if random south Americans show up at our door, its because I've enthusiastically sent them there! The high point of the night was the food. Kurt who owns 'Almorantes Riveros' is the best cook, he had a gourmet spread of snacks - ceviche, clams, mini tortillas, cheese sticks, fresh fruits... honestly some of the best food I've eaten.

At about 12:30 am, we headed to a club where the birthday boy was performing with his band "Ocean Soldiers". They play surfer rock/jazz and are pretty big here (look them up on Youtube). It was a really nice gig, I was glad to be there hanging out with the groupies who were passionately singing all the lyrics. When we finally decided to head home, we got fleeced by our taxi driver who purposely tried to take us on a city tour and we were super annoyed but I guess it comes with the tourist territory. This is a great city, like London but better because of the weather.