Blogs from Santiago, Santiago Region, Chile, South America

Advertisement

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago July 5th 2023

Wow! I can’t believe that it’s been almost four years since I posted my last blog to share with my beloved Travelblog friends! “What happened to you, Tab”? Yes, what happened to me? Well, first I had an accident in Africa in 2018 and I was forced to cut down my trip. I flew back to Canada for an imminent surgery on my leg. Then the downtime ended when I planned to travel back to Africa again in 2020 to cover Rwanda genocide! Bang! The pandemic hit the world and destroyed our world order. Like many of you, I was restless but powerless to change the world. So, what did I do? Well, I continued to write my experience of traveling around the world and publish them as books. I got inspiration from my aunt, an ... read more
Near empty food court in early morning
Photo- Op with the ladies in food court
Busy Santiago street

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago February 19th 2023

Being February, summer has arrived in South America. It is hot, dry and the wildfires are burning rampantly in the southern part of Chile. A haze of smoke fills the air and as we fly in from Rapa Nui. The views are masked… few mountain tops can be seen. Sad because this normally would quite scenic. But, it’s summer…. We spent a couple of days in Santiago before and after our trip to Rapa Nui and a couple of days in Valparaíso before our visit to the desert. Both cities are worth a visit, but each can easily be explored in two days. Santiago is the grand jumping off point in this part of the world. The airport is modern and flights from all places land here. Almost all destinations in Chile reached by air depart ... read more
Piano Stairs
Scenic Valparaíso
Music in local Restaurants

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago March 4th 2022

Friday. 03/04022. Santiago. Our main event was a visit to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights.) It is mainly a museum about the period leading up to the election of the socialist president Salvador Allende, the subsequent coup d’etat by the fascist general Pinochet and the following 17 years of dictatorship. It included information about Truth and Reconciliation Commissions which were established in countries throughout the world, many more than I realized. The experience was moving and troubling but hopeful since Chile managed to return to a democracy. In the afternoon we returned to the Municipal Sculpture Park that is spread along the riverside for a better and longer look at all the art. For dinner we went to the wonderful Restaurant Peumayén Bellavista for their featured ... read more
Memory & Human Rights Museum, Santiago
Memory & Human Rights Museum, Santiago
celebrating the death of the dictator, Pinochet, Memory & Human Rights Museum, Santiago

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago March 2nd 2022

Wednesday. The nearest metro station was a 10 minute walk away and we took the subway train the Plaza de Armas, in the center of the old city. The large baroque Santiago Metropolitan Cathedral is there. It has a barrel vaulted ceiling and many beautiful stained glass windows. In the plaza we watched a woman lovingly caress the head of a horse who carried a mounted policeman. In another part of the park I was approached by a prostitute. We visited the nearby Chilean Museum of Pre Columbian Art. The upstairs galleries with the largest number of artifacts was closed due to the pandemic, but there is a basement room with artifacts from all the regions of the country. On the ground level facing an interior courtyard are galleries of donated artifacts on tables, most under ... read more
"To the Indigenous People" sculpture
Plaza de Armas
Plaza de Armas

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago March 1st 2022

Tuesday. Smooth disembarkation from our ship that took us to Antarctica then a bus to the airport. Beautiful day and I had a window seat on the east side of the plane which afforded views of steep snowy mountains, deep valleys, many mountain lakes and towns of the Andes. Santiago. Taxi from the airport to our B&B in the Bella Vista district at the apartment of Christian, our host. The area has a Bohemian atmosphere, low-rise buildings with many many murals, nightclubs, restaurants and an obvious gay presence. It sits at the base of San Cristobal Hill which has a large statue of the Virgin Mary on top, a sculpture that was made in France then shipped to Chile. A funicular runs to the top, but unfortunately it was closed, so we took the bus to ... read more
The Andes Mountains
Virgin Mary
San Cristobal Hill

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago August 20th 2021

Interesting about Chile, where Mr. Mike and I did some serious wine tasting a few years back. Chile is the only major wine country in the world where no phylloxera exists. A lethal insect, phylloxera devastated most of the world’s vineyards in the 19th century, after which vines were necessarily grafted onto resistant rootstock. But most of the vines in Chile today remain ungrafted. Phylloxera’s curious absence is not fully understood.More zin than cab?? Cabernet Sauvignon plantings superseded Zinfandel way back in 1998. Today there are 94,854 acres of Cabernet; but just 40,061 acres of Zinfandel. Most of the Cabernet is planted in Napa and San Luis Obispo counties. Most of the Zinfandel is planted in San Joaquin and Sonoma counties. (Winespeed) PS, I am not a big fan of most zinfandel.... read more
Some Chilean carmenere
Try some Lodi wines

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago February 3rd 2021

http://www.heygo.com 3rd February- Santiago - Chile We started our virtual tour today in front of the Palacio de La Mineda (Palace of Mint) The seat of the President Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: It occupies an entire block in the area known as Civic District. We heard how Chile’s armed forces stage a coup d’état on 9/11 1973 against the government of President Allende, the first democratically elected Marxist leader in Latin America. Allende retreated with his supporters to La Moneda, this fortress-like presidential palace which was surrounded by tanks and infantry and bombed by air force jets. Allende survived the aerial attack but then apparently shot himself to death as troops stormed the burning palace, reportedly using an automatic rifle given to him as a gift by Cuban dictator Fidel ... read more

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago March 15th 2020

It's a beautiful Sunday morning here in Santiago, Chile. Most of our small group arrived on Friday morning, looking forward to a lovely trip through four countries in South America, and for me, another chance to escape some of the winter's colorless cold in Maine. Our group numbers only ten intrepid travellers; eight had already cancelled for fears of the coronavirus or of the unknown. As it turned out, they were the smart ones. I hardly expected this trip to go forward because of all the shutdowns, but after calling Vantage and the airline multiple times (including on the morning I left home), I was repeatedly told that there were no problems in South America. So I travelled most of the day Thursday, and after arriving on Friday morning we met our Vantage leader, Nadia, and ... read more

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago November 11th 2019

So how to explain the last few weeks…and you may not be aware, but starting October 18th, Chile saw the beginnings of a massive social movement against the current state of the social system. And I don’t want to be flippant with this situation, as what people here are fighting for, is important, and the situation is complex. Now, not that I was predicting this would happen, but in hindsight I can see how the issues Chile faces with inequality, as well as the current structure of the social system, could lead to problems such as this. The best way to put it is that in the last few weeks when it comes to us and our lives, is they have ceased to have a rythym – each day is now different, each day is unpredictable. ... read more
Plaza Italia rally October 25th
Smoke over Santiago - Friday, November 8th
View of the same fire from a helicopter

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago February 21st 2019

It’s our last day in Chile and we’re going to Cerro San Cristobal; a park on a hill on the edge of the city reached by a funicular railway. First, breakfast from the mini market over the road. The old man buys a cake tossed in a thick coating of icing sugar and coconut. He puts it into a bag, then picks the bag up by the wrong end. The cake falls, he executes a miraculous catch, saving the cake and covering the next lady in the queue in sugar and coconut. After we’ve finished juggling/eating breakfast, we walk to the funicular which operates from its own castle and takes you 500m up the hill for great views over the city. You can then climb past a series of decorated crosses to a 22m high statue ... read more
Cerro San Cristóbal Teleférico
Cerro San Cristóbal funicular
Cerro San Cristóbal funicular




Tot: 0.271s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 15; qc: 78; dbt: 0.1585s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.3mb