Santiago

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As I packed to leave Rio after 4.5 weeks of travel I was feeling ready to get home and even contemplated changing my ticket and skipping Santiago and Chile.

Fortunately Santiago reinvigorated me. By far the most 'European' city I had visited, I enjoyed wandering bohemian suburbs and tasting great quality and good value food and wine.

Large areas of Santiago are made up of well designed high quality 6-8 story apartment blocks spaced apart in park like grounds. This means that the view is green and open, rather than into your neighbours living room. A lot of apartments have 3 or 4 bedrooms and families seem to like the lifestyle.

While I had seen big volcanoes in Ecuador and been over 3000m in Peru this was just high hill country with glimpses of the high Andes in the distance. I was keen to see real mountains up close and with snow covered mountains clearly visible from Santiago I went exploring. Unfortunately a long drive up to a ski field yielded snow, but scenery not a patch on the Remarkables or Treble Cone.

My other drive out of Santiago was more successful. Never one to pass a winery I visited one of the Central Valley vineyards and enjoyed an afternoon of wine tasting.

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