And back to Santiago.

The 16th was primarily comfortably spent on buses travelling back to the capital via La Serena. We arrived late evening and opted for a meat feast at a restaurant close to the hostel. Due to lack of planning we were not in the boutique Bellavista hostel this time but in a more standard backpacker place, albeit close by.

First stop the following morning was Centro Cultural Palacio de la Moneda, where there was an extensive exhibit of 20th century pieces from the collection of Peggy Guggenheim. The Palacio de la Moneda is the seat of the President of Chile and had the honour of being bombed to smithereens during the 1973 coup. It has since been restored and a large cultural centre been built underneath. The exhibit we visited was very impressive, with pieces by everyone from Picasso to Pollock to, well, most other major mid to late 20th century artists you care to mention. Most of whom I hadn't heard of.

Next we headed to the Museo de Santiago, a museum tracing the history of the city from pre-Colombian times to the present day. As with the equivalent in La Paz I was looking forward to seeing photographs from yesteryear, and as with the equivalent in La Paz it was shut for renovation. Humph.

It being a scorching hot day and not fancying any of the other art museums we decided to head for Parque O'Higgins, a large park near the centre of the city. Planning on relaxing and reading in the sun, we got there to find hoards and hoards of youths and other miscreants, and a certain 'studenty' aroma in the air. Turns out there was a huge weed fest going on. The camera around my neck certainly attracted a few nervous looks!

That not really being our scene and (as a result) the rest of the park turning out to be pretty uninviting in any case, we left and headed back to the hostel to chill in more grown up ways. Reading and afternoon napping.
Inspired by youth and eager to keep our fingers on the pulse of world culture, that evening we went to see Amanecer parte 2, a subtitled film about vampires and werewolves starring Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (ahem). The subtitles were in Spanish, the audio the original. Let's just say the phenomena is most definitely global. And, hell, the film pretty damn good.