Blogs from Santiago, Santiago Region, Chile, South America - page 10

Hi Everyone, So after the mess that was yesterday, we woke in our freezing cold room, well according to Vick I was toasty. We got our free breakfast, of tea or coffee and 2 biscuits not the breakfast we were looking for bud it was something. Also the owner offered to drive us to the bus terminal so we were happy. We packed up and soon were at the bus terminal, so far in South America we have found that the buses all run very late, both turning up and getting to your destination. Today was no different, the bus was about 30 mins late and it ended up 4 hours late!! YES 4 HOURS!! The seats on the buses are really good called semi-cama, which is half bed, the drive was amazing, the views are ... read more

Finally, as promised, I have updated all my blogs of South America with photos. I also edited the blogs too as I noticed that the tablet I'd been using while we travelled had, annoyingly, kept altering what I'd written (damn predicted text) and some of it just didn't make sense. I will just re publish this blog and if you're interested in the photos you can keep going to the next one and the next one and the photos will be there. If you're not interested , sorry for cloging up your in box with the alerts. Chilly in Chile We arrived in Santiago to a crisp 6 degrees C. Felt like Manchester to be honest but by the time we'd collected our bags and found a bus to take us downtown the sun was out. ... read more

Yesterday afternoon, after a swim and nap by the hotel pool we drove to the highest point in Santiago to view the sunset. Our driver, Hector, was challenged by the hoards of bicyclists also climbing the hill. Also, some of the vehicles that were going up were crawling so that they would arrive just before sunset, not a moment earlier. I taught Hector an American word that if taken literally, described an antiquated device that women used to use to clean their unmentionables. It was very hard to explain this with my limited Spanish but once it was clarified, and once Fran was finished pummeling me for being immature and disgusting, both our driver Hector and our guide Alwin, found the term hilarious. They practiced their pronunciation until they got it right. Now Hector knows what ... read more

Alexandra and her husband were busy on this day, so we decided we would visit the zoo and ride the funicular to the top of Cerro San Cristobal. We awoke early, got ready and headed out to the metro. We rode it three stops to the Baquedano station. From there it was about a 15-20 minutes walk to the funicular. We had been in this same are the day before when we ate lunch with our friends at Shukran. We purchased our tickets for the funicular and got off on the first stop, which was for the zoo. The funicular does not stop at the zoo on the way down so that is why we chose this first. The zoo here is a real deal at around $3 per person. It is also very nice and ... read more

We awoke at 8 am and got ready so we could meet Alexandra and her husband at 9 am. He had to work in the afternoon, so we would explore a little until then. We met up inside the Santa Lucia metro station and then went to the top of Cerro Santa Lucia, which translates to "hill". The climb to the top is easy and there are awesome views from up there. There are different monuments and fountains to see during the climb up the steps. We stayed at the top for 10-15 minutes taking in the massive city below us. It was overcast so you could not see the Andes Mountains very clearly. When we went back down, we walked down some city streets to Plaza de Armas and visited the Metropolitan Cathedral, and the ... read more