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

First Full Day Today was my first full day in Chile. We had orientation in the morning, followed by getting picked up by our host families and taken to our new homes for the next few months. It's been a loooong day, but a great day. After lunch and moving in, we had a siesta before my host mother gave me a tour of the neighborhood. There were tons of dogs in the park we walked through, and although none of them were on leashes, they all seemed to get along just fine! I don't know why that surprised me; perhaps because parks in the US have such strict laws about dogs always being on a leash? Tomorrow I will get picked up by a local family from church so that I can attend services (I ... read more

And I am ready to The end of this journey . I have really enjoyed Santiago and do recommend it to anyone . I have walked and walked for the time I was here and it has always been interesting and I have always felt safe . The other day I climbed the stairs to the top of Santa Lucia and although I was a little winded I had no trouble with the climb . I am thinking that the physical exertion I have been through the last 4 weeks has been good for me ... although the good meals that are also huge portions has not helped my waistline. Shirley asked about water shortages and it really is getting to be a crisis in Bolivia . The rains are overdue and the farmers and the ... read more

Sorry I am super late on the blog posts, I will try to catch up ! Santiago is a big city and it even has a tube which was very handy!! It is real pretty and I was lucky to meet up with Belen who I know from her boyfriend (a uni friend Matt) so we had met in London a few times. She was nice to show me around and even invited me to her family pre Christmas cocktail evening ! We visited the house of Pablo Neruda together and hadn't lunch in the Bellavista area where all the bars and restaurants are. The next days when she had to work, i did a walking tour of the city where I met a few other travellers, we visited the market and the cemetery as these ... read more

It's 'Hola!' for a final time today, as we bid farewell to South America, after an incredible four weeks here. From the lush Uruguayan countryside to the barren Atacama desert, we have come to love the place; particularly Chile, which with its sheer contrasts we both agreed is probably the most beautiful country either of us have visited. No more were these differences more apparent than en route from chilly Punta Arenas in the far South, to the gritty copper mining city of Calama, which sits in the Atacama desert, just inside the Tropic of Capricorn. Dramatic glacial landscapes gradually gave way to green rolling hills and then to bone dry desert as we flew north, nothing else better highlighting the sheer length of the country, which spans 4300 km from top to bottom. Further stretching ... read more

Another ‘episode’ in 'our' travel experiences. The collective ‘episodes’ (this being the fourth) describe our journey from our arrival in Buenos Aires (Sth America) from the 1st week of October for an extended tea-bag experience of this huge continent. Like home, the continent is huge. In the few weeks available to us, we can only experience a few locations - a (tea-bag) dunk here, another there, and so on. After a few days in Buenos Aires, we flew to Lima for a 'dunk' into a few selected locations. We then fly to Chile to do some more 'tea-bagging'. We'll eventually make our way back to Argentina and our departure home. We attach a few pics to give a flavour of our journey, and some may 'flow over' past the dialogue. If we do this, you may ... read more