We spent a noisy night in Auckland - there was a party at the building next to our hotel which went on until the wee small hours. So we missed out on a lot of our beauty sleep. As we were awake early we went to Mass at St Patrick´s Cathedral at 8am, then for a cuppa in the Church Office building. That tided us over until the rain stopped, when we went back to the hotel and packed up our bags. We had a few hours tospare so wandered down to the Viaduct & had Subway for lunch, sitting in the shade.
At 1pm the shuttle bus arrived and took us to the airport. Usual procedure to get through customs, then a long wait until we boarded at 4.20pm - as usual we were early to the airport.
Our flight was with Lan Air, and the path was south from Auckland, straight over Gisborne, and north-west to Santiago, missing the tip of Antartica by about 1000ks. It was only truly dark for about 1/2 hour. The flight was just over 10 hours.
On arrival we waited for quite a while for our packs - first on last off? - then went through to the public area where there was an official taxi stand at which we could purchase our ride into the city. Taxis do not have meters, so it was good to get one knowing what it cost ($28US). The guide book had said it would be about $30US so we were pleased with that. It was a fast trip, up to 120k/hr, not a lot of traffic on the road being a Sunday. There were numerous shantytowns along the side of the highway. The environment was very dry, brown & dusty with a few trees.
Flying over the countryside into the city we saw well-irrigated valleys. The plane comes over mountains to land in Santiago, which is of course surounded by the Andes.
The hotel is like a 3* eastern European one, we do have airconditioning in our room though and it is quite large. It is like an aged lady who has seen better days. There are free computers with wireless however, and it is right in the centre of the city.
After unpacking & showering we walked tw blocks to the Plaza de Almas, which appears to be the "town square". It was about 30 degrees. On the Square is the Catholic Cathedral - a grand Cathedral in true European style, but starting to look a bit shabby also. We were entertained by a boys' choir singing Christmas carols in English and other magnificent hymns.
After wandering around the central streets we found a supermarket and bought some water and fruit, before heading back to the hotel for a siesta. We had had 2 nights with very little sleep, and had gone back to early afternoon.