Chilean Sunshine

It is beautiful here in Santiago, Chile. I had pretty low expectations for the huge city of Santiago.... I should not have judged it prematurely. It is a fantastic city.

We spent 24 hours on a bus, over night, through the day, next to the water, in the mountains... we went through it all. But, alas, we safely arrived in Santiago well-rested and ready to rumble.

We are staying in a nice hostel right in the center of town...one Barrio to be exact. Santiago, with about 5 million people, is HUGE. It has a lot of high-rise apartment buildings, beautiful European-like architecture, and plenty of parks to just lay around in. Since it is summer here, it is about 80 degrees with a breeze, no humidity! It is fabulous. We spent our first night here eating a late dinner (you do not eat dinner before 9 pm!) filled of fresh fish! Then we were off to the Club De Jazz which apparently is the most prominent jazz club in Latin America. We saw three jazz bands, drank a lot of wine, and just kicked back. A great way to start in a big city. Today (the 15th of November) ,we explored.

We started the day enjoying some local coffee and chilean fare and then bounced over to Santa Lucia which is a huge garden on a hill. It was stunning....there were palm trees, flowers, and fountains. I called it my ¨secret garden¨. We walked to the top and had quite a view of the city, including the ice-capped Andes that surrounds the city (and the entire coast of Chile). After Santa Lucia, we ventured into an art museum, Bellas Artes to see a few photography exhibitions. It was a cute museum and I particularly enjoyed that it was not overwhelming in art or people.

We crossed into Barrio Bellavista which is a small part of the city with a young crowd, lots of bars, and restaurants and we stopped in for the local Chilean snack... a Completo! A Completo is a hot dog, in a LARGE bun, with saurkraut, tomatoes, guacamole, and mayo. It was fantastic. Kevin and I shared one but then decided we needed another one.. so of course we bought 2. After being full, we headed to San Cristobal which is a statue on top of a very large hill. We took the Funicular up to the top, a trolley car on railroad tracks pulled up by cables. There is a zoo on the hill but we decided to skip over it and head straight to the top where we found a huge open-air place where mass is held. There is a stage, a statue, a chapel, and candle-lighting area. It was very serene and very religious as well. With one of the best views of Santiago, San Cristobal was a very crowded religious area with both locals and tourists.

When we made our way down, we hopped on some local llamas for pictures. Really though, it is a tourist attraction so owners bring their llamas and you can ride on it and take pictures! It was fun but I do not think the llama enjoyed it at all.

We have one more night here in Santiago before we are off to Valporaiso tomorrow, a beach city full of seafood and art.

Until I am full of Completo´s and seafood...