Santiago

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Thursday July 21- My first thoughts when arriving in Chile were it's freezing and Santiago is beautiful! Unfortunately when my flight arrived it was too dark to see the Andes mountains, but driving to the hotel in the morning I had a breathtaking view of Santiago with it's various types of architecture and palm trees accompanied by a backdrop of the Andes mountains. The first day we visited Cerro San Cristóbal and I had my first ride on a Chilean funicular or "ascensor". Cerro San Cristóbal was a hill used as a quarry but transformed into a religious sanctuary and at the top of the hill lies a monumental statue of the Virgin Mary.

Friday July 22- Day 2 in Santiago we toured around and explored the down town area. We visited the Plaza de Armas, the Catedral and the Paseo Ahumada. We were planning on touring the Catedral, which was constructed in 1748 along with the founding of Santiago but students were outside protesting and it was unsafe for us to hang around there too long. We also had the opportunity to visit the Palacio Presidencial La Moneda, which was constructed in 1786 as a mint but later transformed into the presidential offices. We toured inside and saw the place where Salvador Allende died. ¡Que interesante!

Saturday July 23- In the morning we visited the vineyard "Viña Cousiño Macul", one of the oldest and most prestigious vineyards in the country where we tasted some delicious Chilean wines. In the afternoon we visited "La Chascona", one of Pablo Neruda's homes that was originally acquired as a spot for Neruda's secret relationship with his Argentinian lover Matilde Urrutia, who inspired the name of the house which translates to something like "voluminous hair". The house was beautiful, with a breathtaking view of the Andes and small gardens and terraces integrated between the rooms of the house. Unfortunately due to the Coup d'etat in 1973 most of Neruda's possessions here were destroyed because of his affiliation with the Communisty party.

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Photos

Cerro San cristóbal
view of Santiago.. along with the hazy line of smog

funicular!
Cerro san cristóbal

view from the hotel
good morning Santiago!

el catedral
student protests