Kevin is a little on edge this morning, no wonder, it must be stressful to talk in front of so many people.(I iron his clothes – those who know me will lift their brows – ironing is not one of my passions...but I have to support the man in my life in some way!)

On the news they tell us that large parts of Santiago are under water after heavy rains .

Today my mission is to reach Vino del Mar. I wait for the traffic to become a little less hectic before I start my journey. By 9:30 I am on my way to the metro, I will travel in the direction of San towards the Turbus Terminal at the Universitad of Santiago. Nicole wrote down instructions and a few Spanish words to help me with the journey.

I find the bus to Vino del Mar with ease. It is a luxurious bus with air con, lots of leg room (more leg room than an aeroplane!) and even a TV.. At every bus stop people will get on to sell cakes, bread, peanuts and cool drinks and as the bus departs, they get off.

We drive through very long tunnels. I see valleys covered in grape vines and small houses everywhere. Nearer to Valpariso the houses look very similar to the Zulu huts in the Durban area – the only difference is that the most of these houses here are built on stilts – flooding is thus a common problem in this area .

Vino del Mar has a wonderful array of gift shops and parks. The main transport here seems to be horse carts. There are huge parks and the most beautiful buildings everywhere. A lot of these building are empty. There were enormous earth quakes in 1906 and then again in 1971 and again in 1984. Some of these buildings could not be repaired – there are ruins of hotels on the rocks on the beach.

The sea is very cold here. I pick up shells and stones and carry them for miles (we do not buy a lot of curious anymore (2013) but I still have this tendency to bring shells and stones home).

The sand on the beach is white, but the waves very small – it looks like a pond. Some men are busy building statues on the beach.On inspection I find that they are building the nicest lady bums! The men here are totally crazy about bums – I have never seen such obsession in any other country – even on the streets outside shops they will advertise jeans (without the top half of the body) but the bums will definitely be accentuated.

I buy a well-deserved ice cream and walk back to the bus terminal where I find a bus back to Santiago. The entire trip cost me 4700 pesos (about R80). When I get back to the hotel I fall onto the bed and only wakeup when Kevin enters the room an hour later. Kevin tells me about the talk – it went well.

We walk to the Plaza de Armas for food. They have food displays behind windows – this time we choose what we want, show them and know what we are going to eat...wonderful food.

Back at the hotel we have to pack again. Tomorrow we will go north. I am not that impressed since I have to join the men while they go to some slimes dams, but I do not have a choice so I decide to make the best of this and use it as an opportunity to find out more about what Kevin is doing.