12th December

Free day today - which means making breakfast at 9.59 am. Went for a stroll on my tod for most of the day. I really like Santiago - it is clean, green, safe, friendly and if it had more history it would be up there with BA as best capital city visited. Problem is I can't understand a WORD of what they are saying. The Chilenos have a reputation of being misunderstood. The shops, bars, restaurants are numerous and seems to be a lot of variety. The only downside is the number of fastfood places. I saw the Golden Arches, Burger King, Subway, Starbucks and even the bloody Colonel. Bought Andy and Tubbs a bottle of rum and got them US$50 each for their efforts over the last weeks. The day will be remembered though for having a coffee in a cafe with no seat and one continuous wavy table and being served by women in micro-dresses. When I walked in I was surrounded by a cross between air-stewardesses and strippers. I have to say though that it was all above board and there were a number of women customers too. The woman who served my table was unfortunately like "Edith" out of " 'allo 'allo" - it is a pity they don't have bars like this in BA!!!

The girls were off having manicures, pedicure, coiffeurs etc while Rob, Tubbs, Kate, Ian, Jon and I had some drink by the pool. They were on triples and I plumped for the wine I bought in Cafayate. Kate was there complete with washboard stomach, Rob was there with the obligatory Cuba Libre and Tubbs was his usual self and asked me if I had trieed "Coffee with legs" to which I laughed. Ian, Jon and I hid the quiz book on the truck as part of a treasure hunt. Hilarious but required so much effort after the drinks.

We ate in La Vaca Gorda ("the fat cow") as a farewell meal. Charlotte and Tina looked great after their salon experience and the meal was memorable for all the leavers. Had another steak but still not as good as Argie. Met the other 2 new joiners, hope they last the pace. Steve insisted we did speeches. Don't ask me what I said I was well under the influence by then. We took hundreds of photos in various poses before heading off to a local bar much to the relief of the locals in the resturant. Bit tame, we sat outside. The bar had no music, no dancefloor and NO KARAOKE. Connor was in Mr Hyde mode and Rob totally incomprehensible. Ian was in a state which I haven't seen before - he even confessed which bear he looks like and Steve fell asleep on a couch. Karen and Shannon looked a bit bored - probably as El Cantor is off tomorrow but did have a good chat with Charlotte who is depressed her bear is going.

Got back to find Rob flat out on bed, but this time I did take photographic evidence. Watch this space...