We’re a bit behind but it’s more due to a lack of internet access than time at the moment. That and I've not been particularly inspired by Chile (sorry to any Chileans reading this) so the prose hasn't come easily.
Anyhow, we arrived in Santiago in 32 degree heat with no breeze which had us moving for shade wherever we were and first impressions of the city weren’t that great. It may have been that we weren’t particularly motivated being on the road again after our lovely time in NZ or perhaps the city is just quite shabby.
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The heat was a shock and I resorted to using the £1 umbrella I’d bought in Kuala Lumpur and caught some very odd looks.
From the flight in, Santiago is located in a huge basin and while every day we were there the sky was an opaque blue with sweltering heat and little breeze, the mountains in the distance are high enough to still be capped with snow. Santiago didn’t really grab us which turned out to be quite lucky as we had to spend a crazy amount of time sorting out the remainder of our flights South America and the US. We didn’t take many photos of the city but the main square was quite picturesque.
Some of the older buildings reminded us of London.
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We visited Valparaiso for the day before an overnight bus trip. Valparaiso is apparently a popular tourist destination in Chile and is an old port city, the buildings of which line the surrounding hills. It’s about two hours drive from Santiago on the coast so a good place to go for the day.
There are many cable cars that run almost vertically up the hillside, saving the lazy from a steep walk. Often they’re hidden in between two buildings like this, so easy to miss!
The old Navy building was impressive
but we were glad we hadn’t come here to stay. There were loads of stray dogs, more than I’ve seen anywhere else, more homeless people than we’ve seen for a long time and we were witness to a crowd of locals keeping a thief at bay until the police arrived and dragged him off to the boos and jeers of the crowd. It wasn’t the sort of place you felt you could relax in, put it that way.
That night we headed on an overnight bus 1000km south to Puerto Varas, a German colony on the edge of Lake Llanquihue. There were stunning views of Volcan Osorno when the cloud lifted and the lake was pleasant but again we were a bit under-whelmed so decided to head across to Bariloche in Argentina.
The most memorable thing about Puerto Varas was this dog that followed us all around town for the morning and, when she lost us, picked us up again a few hours later. We didn’t feed her, talk to her or anything but when I sat down she was right up there with me, snuggling in. A real smooch. She even followed us back to our hostel and sat outside the gate waiting for us to come out. We tried to lose her by hiding behind cars, bushes etc but she always found us. We guessed hiding from a dog behind cars and bushes wasn’t normal tourist behaviour but we had fun nonetheless.
.jpg)
Anyhow, we arrived in Santiago in 32 degree heat with no breeze which had us moving for shade wherever we were and first impressions of the city weren’t that great. It may have been that we weren’t particularly motivated being on the road again after our lovely time in NZ or perhaps the city is just quite shabby.
View Larger Map
The heat was a shock and I resorted to using the £1 umbrella I’d bought in Kuala Lumpur and caught some very odd looks.
From the flight in, Santiago is located in a huge basin and while every day we were there the sky was an opaque blue with sweltering heat and little breeze, the mountains in the distance are high enough to still be capped with snow. Santiago didn’t really grab us which turned out to be quite lucky as we had to spend a crazy amount of time sorting out the remainder of our flights South America and the US. We didn’t take many photos of the city but the main square was quite picturesque.
Some of the older buildings reminded us of London.
.jpg)
We visited Valparaiso for the day before an overnight bus trip. Valparaiso is apparently a popular tourist destination in Chile and is an old port city, the buildings of which line the surrounding hills. It’s about two hours drive from Santiago on the coast so a good place to go for the day.
There are many cable cars that run almost vertically up the hillside, saving the lazy from a steep walk. Often they’re hidden in between two buildings like this, so easy to miss!
The old Navy building was impressive
but we were glad we hadn’t come here to stay. There were loads of stray dogs, more than I’ve seen anywhere else, more homeless people than we’ve seen for a long time and we were witness to a crowd of locals keeping a thief at bay until the police arrived and dragged him off to the boos and jeers of the crowd. It wasn’t the sort of place you felt you could relax in, put it that way.
That night we headed on an overnight bus 1000km south to Puerto Varas, a German colony on the edge of Lake Llanquihue. There were stunning views of Volcan Osorno when the cloud lifted and the lake was pleasant but again we were a bit under-whelmed so decided to head across to Bariloche in Argentina.
The most memorable thing about Puerto Varas was this dog that followed us all around town for the morning and, when she lost us, picked us up again a few hours later. We didn’t feed her, talk to her or anything but when I sat down she was right up there with me, snuggling in. A real smooch. She even followed us back to our hostel and sat outside the gate waiting for us to come out. We tried to lose her by hiding behind cars, bushes etc but she always found us. We guessed hiding from a dog behind cars and bushes wasn’t normal tourist behaviour but we had fun nonetheless.
.jpg)
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