Trip to Chile- Friday night reunion with great old school friends and new Buenos Aires friends in Santiago de Chile!

I've just got back from a wonderful trip to Chile where I met up with Alison, Kirsty and Ally's boyfriend Dave, who are travelling the world for a year and are currently on their South American leg of the journey. Nice and civilized glass of wine to start off and toast to our reunion ....

Joe and Richard, two friends I met from Buenos Aires who also happened to be in Chile pop in for a glass of wine ... We just couldn't resist when we walked past this crazy slide in the middle of the night. Just like old times. Maybe when we were 13 we didnt crash into eachother so much...

A bit of dancing in a downtown (not a gringo in sight apart from us) Reggae club. Me, and Ally's Kiwi (and Kirsty practising her spanish with the locals)

"Smile, we're dancing reggae in Santiago, woohoo"

Trip to Chile- Nursing a hangover in the city

Beautiful, crisp, sunny winter weather in Santiago. Casa Roja, the hostal where we we stayed. Santiago city scenes: two clowns. Photo exhibition in plaza.

Trip to Chile- Three cowgirls and two cowboys on a spectacular journey

We arrive at a traditional, humble ranch in the morning to go on a horse ride through the Andes with Cowboy Hector who is going to take us on an amazing route. He points up to this enormous mountain, touching the sky from I where I see it, and says 'thats where we're going to ride the horses' what??? He must be exaggerating, horses cant go up there. Or, better still, first time horse riders cant ride up to there... can they? Walnut and Almond trees on the ranch Cool boots Cowboy Hector.

I get my horse 'Shishabaya'. The horses are Chilean horses that have long hair and short legs.

We're off and Shishabaya is already lagging behind stopping at every possible bush in her reach to have a bite... I had to get the rebel horse. Cowboy Hector shouts back to me to take her by the reigns, not to let her take me... but she is very naughty!

As we trot towards the incredible, imposing Andes, Kirsty turns around and asks ' so where do we pick up the helmets?' errrrr

Going up ...

errrr its suddenly getting very steep and slightly scary on my stubborn, unpredictable, naughty Shishabaya ...

Ally doing an impression of the condor we had just seen soaring below.

Me and Kirsty, what more can you ask for, the pefect place to sit and chat ...

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Trip to Chile- Back to the ranch for lunch

We made it back alive! and Cowboy Hector's wife has been very busy preparing our lunch. A gorgeous hot day ... nice chilean wine. Incredibly hospitable family, breath-taking mountain views ... I think I could get use to being a cowgirl. mmmmmmmm

Trip to Chile- 0ur cosy cabin and a walk to the river

Trip to Chile- Views of the The Andes from the uncomfortably low flying plane

A few pics of Buenos Aires....more interesting stuff to come

My 25th birthday and a few people from work take me out for a nice 3hour long posh lunch....yum! I visited the Museo de bellas artes where one of the famous Rodin 'The kiss' sculptures is displayed, really beautiful to see up close. Me in my new house with Batu the dog.

I've moved from a brand new apartment in a posh part of town (that Macmillan were paying for), to this amazing, quirky house in a cool,more down to earth part of the city. The house belongs to a very charismatic lady who is an actress, she lives here too. She keeps me up all night long telling me very interesting stories of her life in the city throughout the years.

The house has a cosy fire place ...

I haven't really taken any pictures of the city yet as I've been trying to find my feet, but getting lost all the time, which is very time consuming! These are a few I took to send home for opinions when I was house hunting.

I thought this had good potential for restoring... i wouldnt mind living here!

I loved this orange one. Its such a cool, colourful city.

A random railway and street scene...