Hola chicos. ¿Qué tal? We are currently in Mendoza, Argentina. It is just after 8:00 am and we are sitting in the bus terminal, having arrived after an overnight bus from Santiago (we will explain that later). Since our blogs have been somewhat lacking lately, this one will be dedicated to our first trip to Santiago which began on February 26th. But first a little update: we are both doing very well. No food poisoning lately, so things are definitely looking up for us (although we still haven´t eaten the empanadas). The weather is starting to get cooler now, especially at night. We are also camping now, which is working out really well - we are able to cook for ourselves again which is really nice (and much healthier too!). We are still getting news from grad schools, but having a hard time making decisions, as usual. Things have been going pretty smoothly lately.

Getting back to Santiago, we arrived at about 7:30pm in the main bus terminal, which is conveniently located right next to the metro. The metro in Santiago is very similar to the ones in Canada, so we rode that for a while, then took a taxi to Steve and Vicky´s apartment. Steve is the brother of Roy, with whom we stayed in La Serena, and had kindly invited us to stay with him and his wife and their son, Ian. We had dinner that night with Steve and Vicky (at 9:00pm, typical Chilean dinner time) and headed to bed, exhausted from the day.

The next morning we decided to explore the neighbourhood while Steve slept in (he was on time off from diamond drilling and needed all the sleep he could get). Steve and Vicky live in Las Condes, which is one of the more affluent areas of Santiago. We strolled along the main street until we reached a large park. In the park, we were surprised to find recycling bins (the first we have seen since leaving Canada)! We also came across a large handicraft market. Unfortunately, it was so large that we didn´t have time to see most of it. We could tell, however, that the crafts were all definitely hand made (unlike in Peru and Ecuador), but were also quite expensive.

That afternoon, Vicky and Steve took us for a drive to see some of the other neighbourhoods in Santiago. We drove through La Providencia, another area similar to Las Condes, Bellavista (the hippy/artsy area) and into the Centro (downtown). We got out to explore downtown on our own, while Vicky and Steve drove home.

Downtown Santiago is like sensory overload. There is so much to look at you don´t know where to start! With cars roaring by on one side and crowds of people on the other, it is enough to keep you occupied without even looking at the thousands of shop window displays and huge billboards. There are many pedestrian walkways downtown (no cars allowed) which we chose to wander for most of the afternoon. These walkways, though they look more peaceful without the noise and exhaust from cars, are the worst for overstimulation. They are lined with shops and street vendors, but halfway through each block is an alleyway, which is also lined with more shops. These alleyways lead into small shopping malls, which are contained in the middle of the blocks behind all the shops on the walkways! It is unbelievable how much retail you can pack into a few city blocks. We finally made our way through the streets and caught the bus back to Steve and Vicky´s in time for another 8:00 dinner. (A note about the bus system: Chile recently re-vamped its entire bus system, pulling all the old diesel buses and replacing them with newer, more modern buses that are similar to the B-line buses in Vancouver. However, when they did this, they did not put enough of the new buses in service to replace all of the old ones. Also, they implemented a new fare system whereby to ride the bus, you have to purchase a card and then pay for fares to be put on your card - you can´t pay with change on the bus, but you can at the metro. Needless to say, we didn´t buy a card and managed to ride the bus for free for three days).

The next day (our second full day in Santiago) we decided to head back downtown and make our way from there through Bellavista and La Providencia by foot. We headed downtown on the bus to Cerro Santa Lucia (cerro is a Spanish word that is used interchangeably to mean both hill and mountain - so you never really know what you are getting yourself into). Luckily this cerro was just a small hill with a lookout at the top. Climbing the hill we encountered several interesting sights - a large fountain, an old church, a Japanese garden etc. At the top of the hill there was a small platform from which you could get a 360 degree view of Santiago. However, the city is so smoggy, we couldn´t see past the limits of downtown! It really was an eye-opener to see that much smog lying so close to a city.

From Cerro Santa Lucia we walked to Bellavista. As soon as you enter Bellavista, you can tell what kind of neighbourhood you are in. The buildings are all painted in bright colours, many of them with huge murals. The streets are lined with restaurants and bars, and none of them open before 5:00pm. In Bellavista, we found the Parque Metropolitano, one of Santiago´s main attractions. The park is home to a funicular, a zoo, a museum, a huge statue of the Virgin Mary (on top of Cerro San Cristobal), and a teleferiqo. We decided to ride the funicular up to the top of Cerro San Cristobal and take the teleferiqo down the other side. A funicular is like a single miniature train car on a track that is hooked up to a pulley system so it is pulled up the mountain and then repelled down. The teleferiqo was similar to the one we rode in Quito (like a tram on a cable suspended 100 ft in the air). It was a fun ride, and offered us another chance to view the smog over Santiago from the top of the mountain! From the other side of Parque Metropolitano, we walked the sidwalks of La Providencia, enjoying the trees and the shade they offered in the hot sun. After stumbling upon a Starbucks, which we took full advantage of, we headed back to Steve and Vicky´s to run some errands at the HUGE mall just near their apartment.

Our last morning in Santiago was spent organizing our camping gear. When we finally had everything figured out and in it´s place, we headed off on the metro to the bus station. From there, we caught a bus to Valparaiso, which is 2 hours west of Santiago.

Time to head off, will write about Valparaiso and Viña del Mar soon. Hope everyone is doing well. We miss you all and think about you often!

xoxoxoxoxoxo

Maya and Braden