Santiago de Chile

My flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago was half an hour late in leaving and on arrival I had to line up with other visitors to pay the 'reciprocity fee' ie Australia charges them to enter there so they charge us (and numerous other countries). The good news was that my transfer driver was still waiting when I got through customs which was almost as strict as Aus re bringing in food and plants. My driver provided a local guided tour on the way to the hotel where the next four groups leaves from. It is the Palisade hotel right in the centre of the city - it is also four star and while my room is warm it is very comfortable. My first day I spent a few hours walking around the local area which has lovely parks and on Saturday afternoon they were full on girl amd boyfriends costing up on the grass and dogs sprawling on the cool grass. In the evening i got a ticket to a ballet which was playing in a theatre just by the hotel. It was a good show and the audience were very enthusiastic not wanting to let them leave the stage. .Yesterday afternoon during a city tour I noticed the temperature was 41C so pretty warm for a Sunday walk in the city. There are 13 people on this new trip, all except one from England and Scotland. One young woman is from Belgium. We went out for dinner in a local restaurant area and were served huge plates which I think could easily have fed two.