A Month in Chile

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Hi everyone, as usual we have dropped off the face of the earth for way to long. We spent the month of January living in Santiago, the capital city of Chile with about 6 million other people. We got pretty lucky and managed to arrange an apartment in Providencia, one of the nicest Barrio's (suburb).

Sharing with an American, a Chilean and occassionaly with another Canadian couple. In a city that has a subway sytem with more than 100 stops we actually lost our way only a couple of times and managed to see a fair bit of the city in the time we had.

Our life, more or less was: wake up at 8:30, go to spanish class, have a blast (nobody liked Chiara because she was the teachers pet and always wanted more homework) and then go out on the town. We visited the city, the museums and the bars. Then we would drink, drink and drink a little more.....cerveza, vino, terremoto...dance with crazy locals, hang out with our school friends, shop in colorful markets and just live like a chilean.

Outside Santiago, there's plenty on offer. To the west you can be at the beach in a bit more than an hour depending on the traffic. To the east you have the Andes with rafting, horseriding and hiking and to the south you have a number of vineyards and small towns easily accessible by bus.

We managed to make it out of the city a few times, not as much as we would have liked but the spanish classes kept us a lot busier than we thought. Chile has been fantasitc, it's sad to be leaving but exciting to be heading off for other locations.

First stop, Rapa Nui or Isla de Pasqua or Easter Island, depending on where you're from and what language you speak. After that it's off to Mendoza in Argentina for a quick visit with Miguel, before making the trip to Australia.

See some of you soon and some of you a little later

Jonathan and Chiara.

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Photos

THE ANDES AND SANTIAGO
The view from Cerro San Cristobal

THE VIEW FROM HOME
Hanging out on our balcony

THE MIGHTY ANDES
Not bad...huh?

BOHEMIAN BELLAVISTA
Defined by it's artistic heritage Bellavista boasts some of the citys boldest colours!

BELLAVISTA 3
Just hanging out..

PABLO NERUDA´S HOUSE
Ema, it was great!!! It is big and full of knick knacks and interesting..what a character...famous noble prize chilean poet.

MERCADO CENTRAL 1
Cheap and yummy veggies...and I mean CHEAP and YUMMY!

MERCADO CENTRAL 2
Not to mention the fruit...

MERCADO CENTRAL 3
...and more veggies.

AT THE BAR 1
Music...

STILL AT THE BAR
..and drinking...

STILL AT THE BAR 2
...makes me do crazy things!

DANCING WITH THE LOCALS
Afetr a Terremoto (the earthquake drink)
This drink will make anyone dance!

BARRIO BELLAVISTA
A great place for a beer! This is Santiago's Newtown (Sydney, Audstralia) or Queen West (Toronto, Canada)

PROVIDENCIA
Goofing off as usual.

ASCENSOR CRISTOBAL
How lazy people reach the top of the hill.

CERRO SAN CRISTOBAL
How to pass a fine evening...this is at around 8:30pm.

BEER
Hanging out with the roomates.

CERRO SANTA LUCIA
Another hill in town.

AT SCHOOL
Classmates and a couple of our teachers.

AT THE RACES 1
Lots of fun...not much luck.

AT THE RACES 2
Sunset over the race track...still no luck.