We left our apartment and walked around the lovely park surrounding St Lucia Hill before we stumbled on the start of a demonstration march. We stopped for a sticky beak and eventually worked out that it was a bunch of nurses protesting before we continued on our journey and arrived at the base of Cerro San Cristobal (880 metres high). When we started out at 10:00 am it was 5 degrees and by 12:30 it was 22 degrees.

We travelled up the hill in a funicular and then stopped to enjoy an ice cream and the view across the city and the surrounding snow capped mountains (around 1400 metres). The Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception and a statue of the Virgin Mary were commanding pride of place on the hill.

It was really interesting to view the city from such a height and to see how it is surrounded by the mountains. There was low lying cloud which must trap the dust and various other particulates and it left a blanket of brown haze over the city with the mountains poking up into clear blue skies above.

Our next stop was the Plaza de Armas (seems there's one in every town). We went to the national museum for a potted history of Chile. I don't know how much Anthony took in given everything was in Spanish and he declined the English audio... This was a good way to understand the timeline of colonisation, independence and the military coup in 1973, especially as I knew nothing about Chile prior to this.

After the museum we wandered through the square and came across a group of break dancers. We stopped at the adjacent cafe for a drink and to watch the dancing before travelling on again through the city. A block further on and we ran into the stray dog from last night. There are a lot of strays in Chile.

The city itself is hard to describe. There are occasional skyscrapers and other modern buildings interspersed with colonial architecture and down right ugly buildings. There are beautiful parks and tree lined areas through the centre of the main roads, but the city is all very "brown" with a peculiar odour and graffiti everywhere.

Through the city centre there were a multitude of pedestrian thoroughfares with 'stand up' coffee spots and stalls selling various wares from beanies to souvenirs and even bras! We also came across a number of shoe shine spots. We were also surprised at the number of people steaming through the city streets at 3:00 pm. It felt really busy as if there was an event on that we didn't know about.

We did a little shopping and Anthony asked the English speaking guy who served us in the department store for a suggestion of a good place to go for a Chilean meal. He gave us a tip and directions, so off we went.

We sat ourselves down in the restaurant cum bar and were served by a waiter with a smattering of English, enough to get a beer and a nice Chilean wine.

We looked through the single English menu and determined that this was just a run of the mill cafe serving hamburgers and other standard meals. We tried to explain that we were after some traditional Chilean food, but it seemed to get lost in translation, so Anthony settled on a rib eye steak with pepper sauce and chips.

Out of the blue one of the waiters seemed to understand what we were after and suggested a dish that wasn't on the English menu. The gist of his description was beef and something on sticks. I thought this sounded promising and ordered it. While we were waiting for our meals the waiter had a little laugh and said the meal was big, three sticks! Oh well, I thought, I'll just leave what I don't want.

The dish arrived. OMG! It was a plate of chips, layered with onion, beef, chorizo and topped with three fried eggs! There were no sticks. Oh well, I ploughed through as best I could and Anthony helped out too. Anthony's steak was not so tasty and his chips were greasy, but mine were cooked to perfection. His pepper sauce was also white sauce with pepper! Not to worry the wine and beer were good.

We packed up the majority of Anthony's steak into a doggy bag and determined we'd give it to the little stray pup rather than waste it. On the way home we walked past a young homeless guy and we gave the leftovers to him instead. I don't think I'll ever forget the look on his face as we handed him the food, both his hands were raised as if he was receiving something incredibly precious and he repeated 'gracias' several times. I can't imagine sleeping on the footpath and certainly not in this cold!

We returned to our apartment and Facetimed Brianna. One more sleep and we will be on our way home. We have had a fantastic holiday, but we are ready for home now. After seeing 20 countries we can certainly appreciate how wonderful ours is.