Santiago

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We arrived in Santiago around 7:30 am from Punta Arenas and headed to the ''Happy House'' hostel. The hostel is a beautiful old building that was once a home. Only a block from the subway, we really recommend this place. Our first job was to head, via the metro, downtown to the Brazilian consulate and apply for our visas. We were planning on only spending a couple of days here and head to Quito, Ecuador unfortunately the consulate office told us it would take five days for our visas to be processed and they had to hold our passports. Since we couldn't head to Quito without passports we were either stuck in Santiago or we had to go somewhere in Chile. We were scheduled to head to Easter Island in a few weeks but since we were stuck here we decided to change our tickets to see if we can go earlier. After speaking with the LAN Chile agent we were assured that we could travel to Easter Island with other photo id since it was still part of Chile. After changing our tickets we spent the day wandering around the Plaza stepping over all the many sleeping dogs lounging everywhere. Tonight I had the opportunity to meet some of our hostel mates while Sam decided to read the novel she picked up in Punta Arenas. A group of us sat around sharing wine and travel stories and I strolled into our room around 4:30 am. Today we took the metro to Mount Cristobal. The top of the hill, like many cities in South America, contains a large religious statue. We road the gondola up to view the city and took pictures of the giant Virgin Mary looking over Santiago. From the top we decided to hike down the switchbacks and see if the zoo was open. Since it wasn't we headed back to the hostel for dinner. Several of the people I met the other night decided to head out for drinks and Sam and I are joining them. Tomorrow morning we catch an early flight to Easter Island.

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Photos

Mime that kissed Sam
All part of a street act where she/he (we were not sure) married Sam.

view from Cerro San Cristobal
Enough smog that you can not see the Andes in the distance.

Comments

[vera and mel]

super...wonderful...keep traveoling
You guys are lucky...stay safe...keep traveling...Love, Mel and Vera