We exit the lift at floor 10 and walk towards room 1004 which is the number of the apartment we will be staying in for 3 nights in Santiago de Chile. As we approach the door we can hear men's voices laughing to one another and we wonder if we have the right place, we put the key into the lock that we had been given by the concierge downstairs and open the door on 3 men having a few beers on a Sunday evening. Luis I recognised from his photo jumped up to greet us in Spanish and then a man called Johan from Germany spoke in excellent English and told us to put our bags down and come in. After a long bus journey this was a wonderful surprise to spend our evening chatting in Spanish and English and sharing red wine.
Around 10pm Luis popped out to get some meat to make dinner, back home in the UK I can't imagine anyone I know just deciding to cook at 10pm on a Sunday using fresh ingredients so going out to buy it. When he returned he started cooking a feast which turned into roast potatoes topped with strips of steak and onions then topped with eggs. While he was cooking Johan's female flat mate turned up and we all shared the food together and played dominos over more red wine.
The next day we met Johan in town and he have us a tour of Santiago, which we very much appreciated. While we were sitting eating an ice-cream Luis walked past us on his lunch break and plans for the evening were made, which we were kindly invited to. The four of us went up to the roof terrace of Luis' apartment block and drank Pisco (the traditional Chilean alcoholic drink) and watched the sunset.
We then returned to Luis apartment where another lady Katia and 2 Columbian women joined us for dinner and more red wine. I had only one glass of wine, Nathan however had about 2 bottles to himself so I went to bed at 2am and he rolled in around 4am and was not in a good way the next morning. Another excellent night in Santiago and we were so grateful for how Luis and Johan included us in their plans.
We made Luis breakfast on Wednesday morning then went off to complete our final day of sightseeing before catching the 11.45pm bus to our next destination, Taltal to volunteer at a school for 2 weeks.
Santiago will always be the place where we had one of the best, most sociable airbnb host and his friend!