Santiago de Chile

Please let me know if you can see the pictures ok as they seem to be very dark on the monitor here but I suspect that this is more a problem with the monitor not the pictures.

Santiago De Chile the first stop on my journey. The not so good new is that the city itself is not that exciting and doesn’t offer a lot for the tourist. Luckily I had only one day here while waiting for my flight to the Easter Island.

After walking around town and trying the few Spanish sentences I still know on a few shopkeepers, I still had time to visit the Pre-Columbian Museum which has exhibits from various places around central and South and Central America. Quite interesting as far as museums go with a few exhibits for every civilization that roamed the continent at one stage.
Thanks to my jetlag I was up at 7am the next morning and spend the most of the day visiting and finding (yes I got lost) Cerro San Cristobal (St. Christopher's Hill). It is I think the highest point in Santiago but the really great thing about it is that you do not have to walk up! Instead you use the Funicular a kind of tram which runs up and down the hill. On top you have (in theory) a great view of Santiago but due to smog you can’t see a lot. The op of the hill is crowned with a 12m statue of Maria looking out over Santiago. Didn’t bother with the rest of the (I bet very interesting) attraction on top as I had to go back and catch my flight.
Anyhow I managed to catch my flight to the Easter Island and was quite glad to leave the place. I will have to come back again at the end of my trip to fly to Europe but at least I know now that I do not need to spend more time here.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank all my Spanish teachers. I did not learn too much (which was more my fault then theirs) but I have to say the few words and sentences I remember really help. Spanish seems to make lost more sense when you’re in a Spanish speaking country. Looking forward to my Spanish lessons in Buenos Aires.

This is where Chile is. As mentioned the Easter Island is a part of Chile but it cannot be seen on this map as it is too small. Just imagine a tiny spot somewhere close to the edge of the map to the west of Chile...

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