CHILE, Santiago/Valpariso, Saturday 25th August

South America, what have a learned so far? Well all those Spanish lessons weren't for nothing, Pisco Sours are delicious, Chilean buses are very luxurious and when the Lonely Planet warns me that I might get mugged I ought to listen...

I'm not sure if being mugged by 10 year olds makes it better or worse. Obviously it doesn't do much for the old pride but 20 year olds might have made more of an impact, so to speak.
It was a miserable rainy day in Santiago so I thought I'd try out the weather in Valpariso. The town is a humming port and also generally accepted as the cultural capital of Chile. Most of its buildings are heritage listed and it came highly recommended by guide books and fellow travellers so I went to check it out.
As soon as we left the valley in which Santiago sits, the clouds lifted and sun shone. We drove along through valleys between the foothills of the Andes, past huge vineyards and arrived in Valpariso 2 hours later. Easy peasy.
Whilst sipping a cafe con leche and watching people bustling about on the docks I consulted my good friend the Lonely Planet which suggested a circular walk that took in the best sights. As some of you may know, the Lonely Planet is an indispensable guide but their maps leave much to be desired.
I huffed and puffed my way up several steep hills away from the crowds and down pretty, if scruffy, cobbled streets lined with shabby houses painted bright colours. There were some good views of the harbour, the weather was beautiful and all was well with the world. After a time though I began to feel I'd wandered a little off pist. There were no cars whistling at me any longer - yes their cars actually have a horn that wolf whistles, very clever - and not many people either. Hmmm. A young guy approached me and said in broken English
'Please, round here much steal, be careful.' Yes yes I know that's what everyone's told me, I'm not stupid, I thought, thanked him, turned a corner and bash! 3 kids hurled themselves at me. I was on a fairly steep hill and they had me over pretty easily. A grim tug of war ensued over my camera, which was strapped to me. They won leaving me sitting on the road forlornly clutching the strap that I had wrapped around my hand in the struggle. I was less than impressed, as you can imagine but my only thought really was that I still had my bag and I suspected I was in an area where the saying 'lightning never strikes the same place twice' rule did not apply. I hot-footed it back down the main road to the harbour, took a steep lift up to another gorgeous part of town and licked my wounds in a friendly cafe. I felt a little shaken and extremely foolish.
I spent the rest of the day pottering around this safer, more touristy area. Neat, cheerfully painted little houses, steep cobbled streets, I would up load some photos but, well...
So there is my wake up call I guess. Day 3, pretty impressive, well done Kate. Still, I've learned my lesson and promise to be much more careful from now on.

Mugging aside though I am having a great time here in Chile so far. Santiago is a nice town, especially the Barrio Brazil where I am staying, lots of old colonial mansions, slightly derelict but picturesquely so, friendly little cafes full of locals and some buzzy bars.
I climbed the Convent-come-Military Bastion: Cerro Santa Lucia, which winds its way in a chaotic manner past the neo-classical Terrazzo Neptune (fountains a-squirting), along crenulated archways and up steep steps cut into the rock, right up to the pinnacle on which sits a rather sombre church and any number of courting couples lurking in grottos and between rocks. The view ought to be spectacular, being the highest point in Santiago, but the smog blocked out anything that might have resembled a mountain and merely gave a view of Santiago´s uninteresting skyline. I picked my way down around the lovers and teenage pot smokers and left them to it.
Yesterday a fellow backpacker and I went to have a look at what Santiago had to offer in the way of its art collection. Housed in a very grand building are some bored-looking Spanish colonial ladies and, as promised by the Lonely Planet, some bleak landscapes and a whole load of contemporary stuff which was lost on us as we really needed to be able to read the explanations. Still, it was fun poking around and having a good guess.
I had my 1st South American steak at a fantastic local restaurant, full to bursting with gabbling chileans slurping yummy wine and eating steak that bled satifactoraly all over the plates. Huge chunks of meat! I look forward to more of that...
Two of my companions were very keen to, ahem, ´commune´ with the locals and so the rest of went along for the ride and followed pretty Chilean girls to Santiago hotspots where we danced until the early hours to latin beats.

Today a had a fantastic flight over the Andes, cloudless skys and breathtaking views of snowy peaks. And now I´m in Buenos Aries and it is cold and wet. I celebrated my arrival by finding a hostel, curling up in bed and watching Harry Potter. Not formost on the ´to do´ list for Buenos Aries I know but I am still sleep deprived due to jet lag and not keen to catch a cold just before Posy joins me.

Tomorrow I suppose I´d better go shopping for a new camera...