So at 7.15am we caught a taxi to the bus station with all our stuff hoping to get 2 tickets to Santiago for the Festival of Fire. Thank god we were lucky enough to get tickets as we weren't the only ones there. It was a pretty good bus we just watched 4 movies. We only went about 350kms but it stopped 11 times and took 13hrs!
 
We arrived at 8.30pm and a guy was waiting for us to take us to our house but that accommodation was full so then we got taken to the next house which was in a really good location and was with a really nice family.

There was always loads of kids around the house playing soccer with rolled up old pieces of material, paper and plastic they were having the time of their lives. One arvo they couldn't find the rolled up plastic so were just using old Lego pieces as a ball, no problem! It was so good to see kids outside playing rather than inside on computers games or watching TV.

We walked around town during the day checking out a few museums and churches. We went to the very 1st Bacardi rum factory and had a few day time rums. Then we walked along the wharf to where they had set up many food stalls, music and kids rides for the festival. They had heaps of pork on the spit cooking which looked amazing. They were turning the spit by hand so Junior got in there and gave them a hand which they loved. One shop already had the pork ready so we saw them tear it apart while we waited with all the locals. It was only $1 for pork and banana chips but they gave us the ribs and it was so fatty but still yummo.

After we walked back to the Casa for a rest before all the action at night time. It was nice having a few drinks and cigars with the family and watching the kids play soccer. Later we headed back to the fiesta and tried another shop for pork and this time it was awesome so much better with no fat and not as greasy. After we walked to the main plaza where they had performances where heaps of people were watching and dancing. We thought we should look around more so we followed some music and found this great band playing music on the Carnival Museum balcony. We danced around and tried to sing for a few hours which ended up being great fun.

We headed back to the plaza and got chatting with this rusta guy, then we wanted to get some food so this rusta guy took us to a few places but they all said they were shut so we could never get in, we finally got rid of him and went back to one of the restaurants and then they let us straight in. So the locals must know him around town. The pizza was shit but it only cost us $1.25 even though the chick tried to rip us off and make us pay $4 but we caught her out.

The last day we just chilled out around town had lunch while a massive thunderstorm hit town then had dinner at the casa while we waited for our night bus to Santa Clara. 8pm bus $33 each 10 stops along the way. Inside the bus the lights were turned on a off all night long, we watched 1 movie then Junior went to sleep I knew I would not have any chance to sleep so I played games and then watched another movie for the 3rd time. 'Columbiana', great film. 11 hours later we arrive in Santa Clara.