Heading North...

I am in Santiago at the moment, I have been here staying in a great hostel for the past few days. I havn't really done much, other then attempthing to figure out what I am going to do for the next 2.5 months.
Tentative plan:
I have decided that I am going to start moving north slowly, first heading up the Cilean coast and then into Boliva, fallowed by Peru. Hopefully in about 5 weeks I will be in Banos Equador. There I am going to do a homestay for 3 weeks and study spanish everyday (except weekends)!

Yesterday I ventured outside to get away from the lazy internet routene that I had fallen into. I went for a big hike with 2 german fellows and a crazy gal from england. We headed up Cerro Provencia on the outskirts of Santiago. It was hot, really hot, it was steep and we were breathing the lovely brown smoggy air that fills the valley here. Needless to say, after 4 hours of steep up I decided I didn't want to go to the top and that I would go back and sit in the shade (the boys who did go to the top, told us we made a good decision uppon their return). Despite the heat, we did get a good veiw of Santiago (on a realativly low smog day) and the big mountains to the east. This afternoon I head to Valporiso for a few days, to explore...







Photos:
Philip (german fellow) trying to decipher a very bad map, of Cerro Provencia.

The very dry landscape of Santiago's foothill's... cactuses everywhere, I felt like I was in Arizona.

Santiago