8 to 10 December 2016 – London to and at Santiago (Chile)

I left Thetford by coach on the afternoon of 8 December to travel to Heathrow Terminal 5 with the  expectation of having problems on the M25 but there were none and the coach arrived on time. The least can be said about Terminal 5 as I found it to be terrible and if given a choice would not go there again. The purpose of this trip is to fly London to Madrid and then onto Santiago, staying a couple of days to get over the flight and to leave a bag in Santiago while I went over to Easter Island. From there it is to return to Santiago, change bags and then fly to Ushuaia (Argentina), the furthermost town in the world to take a ship from there for a trip to Antarctica, returning to Ushuaia and Santiago.At Santiago I have arranged to join a Dragoman trip for two months travelling to Quito (Peru). In Quito I should have a break of three weeks when I hope travel to the Galapagos Islands. After that I fly up to Guatemala for an organised trip round there to include Belize and Mexico. From there it is back to the UK during May/June 2017.

The flight from London to Santiago via Madrid was with Iberia with the second leg taking over 12 hours and feeling too long and boring. The food was good though! It only took 15 minutes to go through immigration and another 15 minutes for my luggage to come through and then it was a taxi to the Happy House Hotel taking another 20 minutes. Free of problems really. No advance visa was required and no payment to enter the country was necessary but a piece of paper/visa was put into my passport and it seems there are dire consequences if this is lost.

That afternoon I went out, it was dry at first then it rained and my daughter called me an idiot for getting wet, to find locally one street with the most fantastic hardware and car parts shops, my heaven though I only looked in the windows shop only sold car cylinder head gaskets! There was a man putting parking tickets on cars, paper not in a plastic bag and it was raining! The hostel is very close to a metro stop which will have to wait for another day. Most shops and supermarkets only sell food, it's difficult to find washing powder.

The next day I walked to the central square to join a free walking tour. These are actually free and go to different parts of the city, some taken by students who want to learn a foreign langusge, mine in English but I heard others in French and Chinese. Spanish was the normal one as Spanish is the main language here.

The Old Presidents Palace

Horse Guards

Street Art

Street Art

Street  Art

Bill Clinton had a diet coke here sot the cafe changed it's name

Because I like this picture

Gardens

Yoga in the park

There were many people with selfie sticks about the place. Definitely do not like! I can't imagine my face on the front of so many photos they took.