South America Day 43 - Santiago

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Today we’re sightseeing in Santiago. We’ve passed though it underground 3 times but not surfaced yet. We start with a tour of the Palacio de la Moneda (the seat of the President) where we visit the ground floor; courtyards, the press room, state rooms and the chapel.

Then on to the main plaza and the cathedral, finishing at the hillside park of Cerro Santa Lucia. Here you climb several hundred steps through various gardens to a turreted lookout, where we are confronted by the rather surreal scene of a family taking their cat on an outing, while a man plays the soundtrack to Grease on a harmonica.

The afternoon consists mainly of chores; I do 12 days worth of laundry while the old man gets a haircut and buys a new belt (following a rather embarrassing incident at airport security when his old one broke, causing him to accidentally drop his trousers).

We have a quiet evening consisting of a swim followed by drinks on the balcony while the sun sets. It’s such a good view, going out seems superfluous.

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