Readers, you may or not be aware of the lonely planet 'shoestring' series of books, for instance 'South America on a shoestring'. This particular series of books caters for people on ultra tight budgets. Well, let me formally introduce 'Chile on a thong-strap', thats right the famed leather thongs have touched down in Santiago de Chile... and a what a touchdown- I've already been ripped off once!!

Having arrived in Santiago after relatively uninteresting flights I had been expecting to be met at the airport by the hostal operators with whom I am staying for the first two nights. However there was no sight of a placard with my name on it- you know the type you see at airports when tour guides meet people etc. Anyway I thought my best course of action would be to go to the information booth and see if they could contact the hostal, rather than doing this the 'nice' girl put me in the care of some dodgy latin whose job it is to rip off unsuspecting westerners- he walked me to a cab, told the cab driver where to take me and demanded a tip for his trouble; I handed over 1000 pesos which only amounts to $2, but still....bloody cheek of it!! To make matters worse the cab driver insisted on talking to me in Spanish about Australia (kangaroos, koalas etc) for the duration of the 30 minute cab ride (another unexpected expense, since I was supposed to be meet the airport), he also charged a tip!! Anyway must go the time on this computer is about to expire, will post again soon. Lastly there is a huge stray dog problem here, seen at least ten just wondering the streets since I arrived about 3 hours ago.