Santiago de Chile

We boarded our Airbus on time, but then waited 30 minutes before we got under way. Enjoyed our glass of bubbly, which Alison managed to keep hold of as we hurtled down the runway. Iberia do not get many points for cabin design (by comparison with Air New Zealand); there is nowhere to store anything except so far away that it cannot be reached from the seat, whose tray effectively confines you to your seat!
The crew were brilliant and the food was excellent, except that Alison just had one glass of Chardonnay a glass of water and two grapes and raspberries stolen from Pete's starter as she was not hungry, having eaten well on the incoming flight!  Of course, Pete had no such problems and enjoyed a starter of cold soup (Salmorejo with grated egg), Duck terrine, green salad (minus raspberries) and goats cheese (minus grapes).This was followed by lamb with couscous and mashed potato, yogurt ice-cream and coffee.
Alison got her Kindle out and was stuck into a Catherine Cookson story, whilst the rest of the plane was snoring away, even throughout all the turbulence.
Petet came to at 4am plane time (7am UK time) and worked out that there were another 4 hours to go to our scheduled arrival time, but the plane didn't know that Chile was on summer time, so in fact there were only three hours left.
Alison lifted up the blind and was transfixed by the sun rising over the clouds below.

Breakfast arrived at 6am plane time (7am Chile time) and with an hour to go trays were cleared so we could at last leave our seats without causing tray-bound chaos.
We went through the arrivals scrum at the airport and had to complete a second customs form, even though the cabin crew had said one was enough.  We met up with our driver who drove us to our hotel in Providencia.

 Although we were too early for our room to be ready, the hotel kindly let us have a shower and then we took a leisurely stroll around the sculpture park and then had an excellent lunch at Del Cocinero, www.delcocinero.com  which was empty when we entered but bursting at the seams when we left.
We completed our comment card which was posted on the wall with all the others and the chef came out to thank us personally - the feeling was mutual.

We were met at the Hotel by Laeto Solo our guide who took us for a fascinating drive and walking tour.

Our first stop was at the top of el Parque Metropolitano, where we enjoyed panoramic view of the city and walked up to the statue of the Virgin Mary - a gift to Chile from France.
If you look very closely, it would appear that the immaculate conception may have happened some months earlier.






Then we were dropped off at the Government palace and walked from there through |El Centro past the cathedral, which is undergoing restoration following the 2010 earthquake.

We passed the historic court house and prison and finished up at the Mercado Central, which was an iron-constructed building made in Glasgow and shipped out to Chile.  It is now home to many restaurants and is the fresh fish market.






Back to the Hotel and an hour spent fighting the LAN website before managing finally to print boarding cards for tomorrow's flight.
Now in our small but well appointed room trying to decide how hungry we are. It all depends on whether our stomachs are on UK or Chilean time!
We received our courtesy call from the Audley agents in Chile who answered all our questions and confirmed that we did not need any hotel vouchers, as everything was pre-paid.  We walked around the block and found a charming restaurant and salon de The  "Le Flaubert"  www.leflaubert.cl on Orrego Luco. We shared a Greek salad (made with goats cheese) and Alison had an excellent tagliatelle with salmon, while Pete had grilled conger a la Biarriz with a glass of local Rose.
Early to bed ready for our flight to Temuco!