Santiago

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Hola amigos,

After our whistle stop tour of Sydney we landed in Santiago 2hours after we left Sydney. It felt like we were on the plane for around 16 hours though. Weird. After checking in at our hostel in Santiago we played a few games of pool and then I fell asleep for 16 hours while Rich went exploring the city.

The next day I awoke feeling re-energised and ready to see the sights of Santiago. First stop on our tour was Santa Lucia, a small park with wonderful views of the city, shame it was so smoggy. Next we visited Plaza de Armas, which is pretty much the centre of Chile. We also looked at some old arty stuff at the precolombian art museum. Whilst wandering around the city on our way to Mercado Central we were serenaded by the instrumental versions of George Michael's careless whisper and Abba's Dancing queen from streetside speakers. Bizarre.

At Mercado Central we wandered around the restaurants before breaking the golden rule of restaurant selection and picking an empty one. This wasn't the first time on this trip and like before we seemed to be trendsetters as the resataurant soon filled up. We ate exceptionally large, tasty and cheap portions of paella and sea bass. This time we were serenaded by live traditional South American tunes.

After lunch and a wander through a very pugent meat market offering tripe and trotters, we took the funicular up Cerro San Cristobal to see the giant Virgin Mary and take in the views of Santiago with the snow capped Andes in the background.

That night we had a BBQ at the hostel and met some fellow travellers.

First impression of Santiago were that it was very European, nice and cool (after SE Asia), less touristy than previous stops and Spanish is so much easier to pick up than Mandarin or Thai.

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Photos

Santiago
Andes backdrop