Every Great Travel Blog Must Start somewhere!

Life is wonderful.

In this past year, our lives have changed dramatically. It's quite incredible to think that exactly one year and ten days after our wedding, Wade and I are leaving Australia for  trip that has been a pipe dream since the day we met. This adventure has always been a dream of mine and now knowing that I have someone to share it with is incredible. While he hates public transport and his blood boils at the mere thought of airports, waiting in lines or applying for VISA's, I am confident that I have the best travel buddy a girl could ask for. 

First of all, if you are reading this, THANKS! Secondly, if you are anyone other than our close family, we owe you an even bigger THANKS! As explained in our "About Us" page, this blog is hopefully an easy and informative way to keep everyone up to date on our travels and adventures.

So, without further ado, I suppose I should explain where we are now!

At midday (AEST) yesterday, Wade and I boarded our plane for Santiago, Chile. The flight was fairly uneventful and other than when Wade was the first person in a line of 5 all waiting for people to exit the already empty plane toilets (he had them waiting for around 5 minutes before I asked if he'd checked them), it went off without a hitch.

Photo:
Thanks Jess for our handy eye masks which have definitely earned their place in our teeny tiny luggage already!

We arrived in Santiago at midnight Sydney time which was 11am, local time so we had to decide whether to power through a 40 hour day or head to our accommodation for a nap. My head began to swell slightly when my minimal Spanish came in handy to book a taxi from the official stand in the airport. It was only once I had paid the gentleman and was putting away my wallet that I realised (thanks to his next customers) that he actually spoke fluent English (sigh).

We arrived at our Airbnb accommodation early but I was confident in the knowledge that I had specifically booked our first South American accommodation through a guy that used English in all of his email/website correspondence. So, it was a bit of a surprise when a woman showed up and began some sort of explanatory monologue where the only words I understood where her name - Lydia - and the apartment number - 63. My manners completely went out the door and rather than using my most basic Spanish and introducing myself and Wade, I jumped straight into "Hablas Espanol?", meaning "do you speak Spanish?". Well thanks to the fact that in my haste, I said Spanish instead of English, her rapid speech just increased ten fold as she thought I actually understood everything she was saying! Wade kicked back and made himself comfortable on the couch while I used a variety of random words and hand gestures to figure out whether we were even  checking into the right room. 

After arriving in our room and showing Lydia my email confirmation, we were given the keys to the apartment and after I rattled off a series of "yes" and "thank you's"  in Spanish, Lydia left the room before I explained to Wade that I actually had no idea what I had just agreed to and/or thanked her for.

Photo:
Day one in our apartment in Santiago - The very first of many different "Homes" we will be staying in over the coming years!

So, here we are in Santiago. We have both spent the night tucked up in bed, madly studying Spanish and planning our first day out tomorrow.  I couldn't be more excited about our first day here because for months I have been looking forward to our long awaited booking at Astrid y Gaston, one of the worlds top 20 restaurants where we have a booking at 8pm tomorrow. It's a much later time than I would usually book dinner but it was the first dinner booking we could make because apparently these crazy South Americans don't even think about leaving the house for a night out until then. This is going to take some getting used to!

(Check the top 50 restaurants out here: http://www.theworlds50best.com)

Well, I am looking forward to keeping you all up to date with our travels and hopefully adding more photos next time (sorry about the lengthy first entry!). Keep an eye on our photo albums where we will be adding photos regularly.

Hasta luego amigos!