Blogs from Santiago, Santiago Region, Chile, South America - page 16

1er décembre 2014 - Jour 45 Réveil dans le bus où on a étonnement bien dormi. Le reste de la journée ne sera pas bien passionnante, on ne profite même pas du paysage car tous les rideaux sont tirés dans le bus pour ne pas chauffer au soleil. On mate plusieurs films, certains bons, d'autres pas du tout et on prend son mal en patience. Le bus qui était sensé être direct fait quand même beaucoup d'arrêts, pratiquement à chaque grande ville. Et quand on arrive à Serena on nous dit qu'on doit changer de bus! Ok, ça fait du bien de se dégourdir les jambes mais c'est agaçant de perdre encore 45 minutes d'attente pour rien. On monte dans l'autre bus, vachement plus pourri et qui pue. Et en plus le son des écouteurs ne ... read more

Unusually and inconveniently we arrived in Santiago during the early evening. Our normal routine of travelling overnight by bus has three advantages; your accommodation is essentially free, everything’s open when you arrive and the street signs/landmarks are clearly visible. Luckily, Santiago is as urbanised as you can get in South America. Rather than negotiating with local taxi drivers and dusty unmarked lanes we negotiated the metro and pedestrian crossings. Finding our hostel with relative ease we unloaded our bags and headed out for pizza. The pizza place, literally around the corner, was a hangout for the local skaters. It operated in a Starbucks ‘give us your name’ style. Apparently, in order to order from this place you also had to have the right name. Lake had no chance. ‘Que nombre?’, ‘Rebekah’, said Rebekah, ‘No, que nombre?!’, ... read more

Geo: -33.4691, -70.642Day 4 -- October 25 After breakfast we boarded our Tauck coach for a tour of Santiago. Amazingly, there was a minimum of repetition with yesterday's tour. We moved swiftly to the north, passing along/through embassy row, and viewing the rather imposing and contemporary US Embassy. Then we headed up into the hills where elegant homes valued in the millions feature lush landscaping and elevated views of the city. Our guide, Bernado, is a wealth of statistics. On the way back down the hill, he shared a lot of background with us:17.8 million people live in Chile6.8 million in Santiago52 independent counties in Santiago59% Roman Catholic In 1960, the strongest earthquake in history struck Chile and caused destruction to almost all of the country's Spanish ... read more

Geo: -33.4691, -70.642Day 2 ~ October 23 It's 86 degrees F as I write. And this is early spring? Wow.Our flight landed on time, and our stroll through Customs and Immigration was relatively painless. We were met by a Tauck representative and the three of us were shuttled to the Ritz-Carlton Santiago in the business district. A beautiful hotel, to say the least. We were met by a Ritz manager who welcomed us to the hotel and wished us a happy anniversary. She said that they would like to invite us to have brunch on them in honor of our big day. How nice. I asked if Barcy could come along and they cordially agreed. So off to the dining room we went where Patrick had his favorite – eggs Benedict – and Barcy and I ... read more

Arrived in Santiago around midday on a warm and dusty day. Weird to arrive on the same day as we took off, after 12 hours wedged between my beloved and a sleeping Puma. Yes, we shared our flight with the Argentinian Rugby Union team, who are actually smaller than they look on TV. Their saving grace might be they look bloody fit..... but rugby in soccer-mad South America? It's the game they play in heaven.... It was a cloudless day coming into town so the Andes were in full show, with a dusting of snow on the peaks. Santiago is close to some of the highest peaks in the range, a few over 5000m, so on a good day you feel like you're snuggled under the mountains. In Santiago, the Andes are constant presence and a ... read more