Santiago

We had a full day drive to get to Santiago so to liven up the truck I decided to celebrate Easter with everyone. I bought real eggs for everyone and multiples of pens, coloured paper and glitter. We had an hour to turn the eggs into minature caractures of ourselfs. This was no mean feat on the truck, when any slightest bump sends you flying a foot into the air. There was glitter everwhere but everone joined in and enjoyed it, the prize, a chocolate bunny, went to a very strange design where Valerie had covered her egg in silver foil with a pink bandana - maybe she thinks shes an alien but then she is a little strange...

Next stop was a winery just outside Santiago - 'Manuel Torres' wines. Cool to see the process and did get to try them but tight is not the word - practically one sip each! Do not go if you expect a free booze session! Ollie stuck his little finger out and tried to look like he knew what he was doing when tasting them - he obviously didn't.

Arriving in Santiago it was cool to see western style buildings with more than one floor. Its a massive bustling city. This was the last night of this leg and we were also saying bye to Luca our tour leader who had been brilliant, so staying in a hotel allowed for hot showers and the glad rags to go on! I loved it, after weeks of dressing like a man and cold showers I was in the lap of luxury. Plus champagne is £5 for the dearest bottle so I sipped that while getting the bling on - I love Chile! The hotels we stay in are 3 star, no air con, no mini bar, no little free toiletries, but to us they feel like 6 star.

There was a little truck thing where the boys wanted mohecans so I became the truck barber, Simon suited it, Ollie looked like a footy hooligan and definitely got fearful reactions from locals!

We all headed to the bar district 'Bellavista' to a lovely restaurant with live music and also met the new Dragoman guide for the next leg. Everyone was on top form and we 'suprisionly' headed for drinks after. Being a large group some of the trendy bars wouldn't let us in but we found a bar that looked cool. We all walked in - 26 gringos from all walks of life to be greeted by a sea of puzzled faces, silence and no men. Yep, definitely a lesbian bar. I asked the manager if she minded us being there and she was fine with it, so it was drinks all round and a live drag show - wicked. I have no idea how but Simon managed to pull in there, she left her girlfriend for him - maybe I'm better at mohecans than I thought - or maybe I made him look more like a girl?! Onto a club, more drinks and even good old Chuck, a 60yr old ozzy stayed with us till dawn on his last night after doing the whole Santiago to Santiago loop.

Yet again I missed the morning welcome meeting for the next leg as it felt like someone in the night had smashed me in the head with a hammer and a kind animal had left a not so nice present in my mouth. Ollie made it, although reports from others tell me was only there in body, at the polite introductions to the new people he grunted, 'I'm Ollie, my girlfriends unconscious and I wanna go back to bed'.

I slept most of that day, I have no idea what they put in the cocktails but now I only drink wine.

Santiago is great for going out and shopping but not cheap, and there is little else to do there. So can you blame us when we decided on the next night to go back to Bellavista for drinks?! Great contemporary clubs with fantastic music, we found one that used to be a strip club so the pole amused us all for hours. I must say though, it was mainly the boys flashing their wears and i'm proud to annouce that not once did I go near it; see, sensible wine!

We got back one hour before we had to be back on the truck ready for the drive to La Serena. So after being so delighted being in a hotel, I managed one night out if 3 actually in a bed!