We are finally in our last continent. South America. The language and lifestyle is very different and we are killing our livers trying to adjust.

We arrived in Santiago in Chile fully aware that no one would be able to speak English and that we would be heading into cheaper Argentina as soon as we could. Having arrived 2 hours before we had left NZ (even though we had been sitting in a plane for almost 24 hours) we felt a little dazed and with the strange feeling that we should be meeting ourselves or disappearing or something. Neither of these things happened but I did discover some spanish words in my brain that I never knew were there.

The hostel that we thought we had booked online hadn't actually been booked and I was forced to organise another via the telephone. This is the worst mode of communication wherein hand signals and grunts just don't cut it. I don't know where all the made-up spanish came from but somehow it all worked and we were on our way to having a bed for the night. This bed happened to be placed under a tin roof with cats mating and frotting all night but fortunately we were too tired to take any notice.

The following day we moved to a more suitable hostel and we began the process of adjusting to our new culture. Aside from the language barrier the most prevalent thing is the daily schedule. It is similar to that of the Europeans in that there is a daily siesta period from around 1-5pm. At this time most of the shops are shut and people either sleep or go and drink maté with their friends. This afternoon nap necessitates a late dinner at about 9 or 10pm, followed by a visit to a bar with friends until about 2 or 3am. If you go to a nightclub you won't return until 5 or 6 am even if it is a rubbish place and you think you are leaving early. On top of all this, the drinks are super duper strong and a vodka and orange will only have the vaguest introduction of orange to colour the drink. Since most people reading this know us fairly well you will already have guessed that we fitted into this lifestyle quite quickly and took a few days to leave for Argentina. When we did leave, we almost missed the bus due to a hangover and not going to bed until 5am. But leave we did...