Out and about in Santiago

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South America, continent number four and the final destination before we fly home next month. We arrived in Santiago with a new found enthusiasm which had been missing since Asia. During our months spent in 'home from home' Australia and New Zealand we found that we had lost some of that feeling of adventure, but our time in Easter Island started to awakend those lost feelings and upon landing in Santiago our enthusiasm had reached new hights. It's all about making these last few weeks really memorable and going home on a high.

After a good nights rest, our first priority was to book our bus ticket to our next stop, 'La Serana'. This was slightly more difficult than we had antisipated due to a national holiday for the 'Independance day' celebrations, which were going on over the next few days. Every bus was full with locals trying to escape the city for the weekend. All this combined with our 'phrase-book' Spanish led to an extremly frustrating day. By early evening we finally managed to book a ticket leaving in two days time.

Having wasted a whole day on booking a bus ticket we decided to treat ourselves by visiting an upmarket Mexican restaurant called 'Como Agua Para Chocolate'. In Chile you don't go to a restaurant until at least 10pm, so having starved ourselves until then, we were ready for a good feed, and this place didn't dissapoint. After a stressful day we finally got to chill out with a great bottle of wine and and meal for two that could have fed a small army.

We spent the rest of our time in Santiago taking in the sights and trying to get to grips with the language (it's Spanish, but not as you know it!). Our hotel was on the doorstep of the 'Cerra Santa Lucia' a park area on a large mound (70m) which is home to some pretty spectacular buildings and views over the city. Over the years the area has been used as a hermatige, a convent and then more recently a military bastiel. The crumbling walls and sprawling plants give the place a really tranquil feel, that is until 12 noon when the canon is fired, giving all unsuspecting tourists mild heart failure! After dragging ourselves away from the 'Terraze Neptune', with its shaded seats and cool breeze, we headed towards the 'Plaza De Armas' to take in some of the hustle and bustle of the city.

If the road side cafes, tree lined steets and grand water fountains hadn't already made us feel as though we were somewhere in Europe, the Plaza could have been plucked straight out of the centre of Madrid. The architecture was beautiful, with the centre piece being the Cathedral Metropolitana. Street venders selling everything from wicker baskets to roasted, sugar coated peanuts and to top it off there were dozens of street artists selling their latest creations. Having continued our walk through some more wonderfully colonial streets we decided to head off to San Cristóbal, a 300m high hill with stunning views of the city. As we had some time before sunset we took the 'Teleferico' (cable car) out over the park where you can really appreciate how big Santiago is. We returned in time to find a good vantage point to watch the sunset and stayed to watch as the city came alive with lights. A very impressive sight even though we had to sit in the cold to appreciate it!

The next day we jumped on our bus to La Serana, the first stop in our journey north.

B & R

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