Today marks the beginning of the long anticipated trip to South and North America. It started in a very enthusiastic fashion, with Peter driving me to the airport amidst lots of squeals and hugs of excitement. However, if you've ever had really bad hayfever, you'll know what a dampener it can be on even the best days. I seemed to be allergic to something in the air on the plane and spent the entire 12 hours sneezing and rubbing my eyes and scratching my face and blowing my nose - it was most unpleasant. It didn't clear up after spending a bit of time wandering around Santiago either.

However, it made for quite an amusing trip to the chemist when I tried to act out hayfever to the pharmacist . At first she thought my fake sneezes were indicative of a cold and got me cold and flu tablets. I tried to explain what I meant and ended up scratching my skin and rubbing my eyes and eventually she figured it out. The I had to act out sleeping to ensure I was getting the non-drowsy ones. We both got a good laugh out of it. It took a good few hours to clear up, just in time for bed. That is, if you consider bed time to be 4pm. I arrived at 10am (two hours before I left Australia!) and I tried, I really tried to stay up all day until bed time. I just lay down on my bed for a second, but the next thing I knew it was 8pm! I then went back to bed at midnight and slept solidly until 10am. I think I really needed it.

I was worried it was going to be cold here, but these hostel beds have the nicest, cleanest, warmest bedding I think I've ever slept under - not just in a hostel, but ever.

Anyway, not the most exciting news for the day but more interesting stories to come, I'm sure!