Hola Amigos!

So we’ve been in Santiago for two days now and its pretty swell. Santiago has a very similar feel about it to Sydney actually; similar townhouses and windy backstreets which are kind of dirty and a cracked- not in a poor kind of way, it just has that lack of maintenance that you need to make a place feel trendy (think West End if you’re not familiar with Sydney). At least where we’re staying its pretty rich I think. The locals all drive nice cars and groceries and such aren’t that cheap. You can buy a litre of beer for $4 AUD for instance, which is fine, but not Bolivia or Peru cheap from what I’ve heard. I think if you were to drug me and fly me from Brisbane to Santiago, I would probably wake up and think I was still in Australia somewhere if it wasn’t for all the slicked back rollercoaster haircuts and gold rimmed glasses that seem to be an essential fashion accessory here.

Santiago is anything but chilly though (I had to fit that in somewhere- it takes a level of punmanship which Louis could only dream of to come up with gems like that). When we decided to fly to the closest major city to Antarctica I don’t think any of us were expecting sweltering heat (not sure exactly how hot, but above 30). It’s dry though at least, so there are those evaporative air conditioners everywhere. I’m lead to believe it’s basically just a bucket of water with a fan blowing into it- but they work surprisingly well in dry heat.

There was an earthquake here last night- the first one I’ve experienced! You will be happy to hear we all bravely survived the destruction! It was actually pretty underwhelming to be totally honest. It happened during the night, and in the morning we had a debate about whether it was an earthquake or a fat guy running up and down the stairs. I’m not even joking…. we are in an old and really tall building so it creaks a lot anyway.

I’d best be off, the fan in my computer has misaligned somehow so it sounds like a chainsaw when it runs now.  It’s the most grating sound I can imagine, and if I don’t turn it off soon I’m going to smash it into little pieces. Hmm that sounds like a pretty good idea right now… But I guess I might regret it later.