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Published: August 7th 2007
An interesting question, and one that was posed to us by some graffitti at the top of a catholic monument in Santiago. Yes, we have arrived in South America, to be precise we are in Santiago, capital of Chile. Talking to other travellers, Santiago wasn´t getting a particularly good write up, but we liked the place. I think the main reason for that was we arrived from over 3 months in Australia, which for all it´s natural beauty, doesn´t have a huge amount of architectural history. There we were in a city and suddenly buildings were old again, I mean really old, older than 1960. There were European style cobbled streets, statues commemorating the founding of the city in circa 1550 and mountains, lots of mountains. Santiago sits in a bowl, surrounded by the snow peaked caps of the Andies.
We really like cities where we can see mountains. We like them even more so when it means that ski slopes are only 40km away. So after a few days sight seeing (and another few days arranging transport, accommodation and equipment) we grabbed our snowboards and hit the slopes. Oh yeah baby! Given that this was our first destination where
The Andies
The incredible mountain range somehow makes taking this photo of these grotty buildings seem like a good planwe we choose winter as the time to arrive, we thought we better make the most of it. The conditions were excellent too as there was a big dump of snow the day before we got there. It was the first time either of us had boarded anywhere other than the Alps. The Andies look very different, instead of the thick Alpine forests they are bare and rugged, meaning you can fit a lot more runs onto one mountain. That is exactly what they did, you would take a lift to the top and have a choice of 6 or 7 routes down. It was a bit more limited than the European resorts, but for a quick 2 day jaunt it was perfect. To top it all off, Marissa got her boarding mojo back.
This is not to say that Santiago does not have it´s faults. It is rather sprawling and has probably the worst pollution problem I have witnessed. Which brings me back to the question at the beginning of this entry, why indeed take pictures of the smog? Whenever you find a good view point out over the city, you get this thick white band blocking your
This is Why!
It may be a smoggy city but the sunsets really are amazing. view of the mountains. At the same time however, it is strangely captivating, as well as making you wonder why no one is doing anything about it. Then, as dusk falls over the city the night sky starts glowing red, orange and violet. And there ladies and gentlemen as you can see by the attached pictures, the question is answered.
This Weeks Likes:
- More connections, meaning we had our own flat for our week here. Thank you Naverette family!
- Cazuela de Ave. A delicious chicken soup, containing a big hunk of meat, pumpkin, corn and potatoe garnished with a tasty salsa picante. This fine meal saved us from no end of poor quality (junk) food.
- Taking a cable car over the city. Our first day in town was a public holiday, so we joined the locals in putting our heads above the smog.
This Weeks DisLikes: * The pedestrianised shopping area of Santiago is fitted with small speakers broadcasting music to the shoppers. Now if inflicting the likes of Fields of Gold by Sting and the entire Phil Collins back catalog isn´t bad enough, they are too cheap to pay for the rights of the originals,
The Three Layers of Santiago
Buildings, smog and mountains so instead we are treated to terrible Muzak versions
* Continent hopping means more jetlag. For the first 5 days here my body insisted on waking me at 4am every night. This made no sense as this is 8pm Syndey time. The only explanation was my body was craving that after work drink!
* The ridiculous fashion in which the Chilean´s chose to speak Spanish . Not only dotheyalexteremelyquicklbuwordsarejoinedtogetheanendingsare mis making it entirely bloody impossible tounderstawhoneartanyoneisbloody saying.
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Boarding in July!
So awesome! How was it? You guys should all come to North America, well Colorado to be precise, for our big skiing holiday next year - prob March! You know you want to! Had Lisa Mac staying with me a couple of times over the last few weeks - she seems well, was def good to see her. Other than that, all is well - but your blogs really are giving me the itch!