The one when they made it to Chile (the catch up entry)...

YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Greetings from Chile!!

We packed, we said thanks, we jumped aboard the minibus, arrived at the airport, caught the plane ON TIME (hoorah for Air France!) The plane was clean, we got nice food and great service. BA were not so good! We then waited in CDG airport, Paris, for our connecting flight... we made it! The plane was ready for takeoff and off we went - 3 languages they did the announcements in!

(approx.) 4 films each - great film choices, and some sleep, a hot meal, ice cream and breakfast and the seatbelt sign came on as we began our decent over the Andes.

It has to be noted at this point that we all had interesting experience with a variety of neighbours on the plane, some friendly, some not so much, a range of seat positions from the passenger infront but we all survived fit, well and ready for Chile (albeit a little tired, and out of sync time wise!!)

The view of the Andes from the plane window was amazing. This first glimpse was just what we needed to inspire us from the journey. The snow capped peaks in the early light looked grand. (We have some photos)

We were pleased to find 4 bags at baggage reclaim (YAY they made it with us!!), A Chile SIM, no searches at customs, paid for the minibus, 2 bags from baggage reclaim (LAN office) 6 excited GGUK members and we were in a minibus on the way to the hostel.

The hostel is simple, yet does the job well, although Sam and Rach don't like the feather covers on the bed - allergies = boo!! But it's ok as we are sleeping in our own sleeping bags :)

Day one was spent calling round our Chilean hosts "We are in Chile!!", and adventure out to the shops to buy supplies for lunch, a lovely lunch (the biggest bag of crisps ever seen) cheese and ham sandwiches, juice and then it was power-nap time! A snooze, a shower and a walk out later and we were sat in a Plaza enjoying a meal.

Rabbit, Pork, Steak and Tuna later and we were well fed and ready for bed... at 9pm Chile time!! (our bodies thought it was 3am Madrid time!!)

Thursday

5am Chile time, a club next door (we could hear the baseline) and a toilet stop 'cos our bodies thought it was 11am! and back to sleep we all went. 8.30 hostel breakfast hallulla (bread rolls), butter and jam - yum! A good ol' cuppa tea (coffee for Kirsty) and we were ready and raring to go!!

We went into Santiago to explore the city, get bearings, begin to look for resources, and investigate bus tickets for travel elsewhere in Chile.

Cerro Santa Lucia - we climbed up many steps to the top and the view was fantastic!! On the way down, whilst we were on narrow steps we all were... awoken... by a canon firing - right above our heads!!! This was a subtle way of letting us know it was 12pm....!!

An empenada for lunch (bit like a pastie) and we were ready to make the journey back to the hostel via the Supermarkado so that Sam and Helen could buy ingredients for a superb tea!

Pasta, tuna, tomato sauce, courgettes, pepper, onion, tomato... yum yum yum!! Too much food though, but everyone was well fed!! We can work on portion control :P

We went to get ready for our meeting... then someone arrived for us 30 mins early "it's just like INTOPS!!!"

5 mins and we were all ready and waiting for car 2 to arrive so we could be driven to headquaters.

Headquarters was great (albeit a bit Chile-y! jajajajajaja)they have a lovely door with their emblem painted on. We went upstairs and the meeting began. We were introduced to everyone who was around, who decided they wanted to come and look at us. 2 pieces of cake, numerous biccies, a couple of 'brews later and we were more knowledgable about the way the Guiding in Chile works. Charlotte had a plan. We had a team photo and off we went back to the hostel.

Here Charlotte shared the plan with us, and so we all know what is planned... but remember... this is GOLD!!

The people who welcomed us, and who will be working with us on the camp at Callejones were really friendly, they were open to discussion, made us feel welcome and very excited! and they (mostly) spoke fantastic English!! Once again Rach used her Spanish skills to communicate, and Sam even got to use some of her rusty German!! fun fun times!!!

Off to bed again... and ready for resource shopping in the morning...

TTFN... Team Chile... From Chile!!!!