Santiago, Chile

I arrived in Santiago on Tuesday... The sky was blue, it was in the upper 80's, and it stayed light out until 9pm. I'm staying at a nice B&B in a relatively quiet neighborhood, a few miles from the main tourist areas of Santiago, and I definitely prefer these accommodations to the downtown sky-rise hotels....

Wednesday I walked the city a fair bit, but don't think I ever really saw the best of Santiago as the 90+ degree weather was too much for me (I'm trying to not complain about being too hot....... I've heard & seen about this week's negative temps in the Upper Valley!!!!!). To me, it's just like any other city... Far more American-like than the other cities I visited in Ecuador & Peru, and definitely safer. I attempted to see some of the city's gardens but these were a disappointment as they were mostly dried out & dead this time of year. After many hours of walking around, I decided poolside relaxing with a book in the shade would be better.

It is also a fair bit harder to think in their currency, Chilean pesos. Ecuador uses US dollars, a Peruvian sole was essentially 2.5 US dollars, but it takes 470 Chilean pesos to make a dollar. Much harder to work with! So my 4,000 Chilean peso lunch was about $8.50.

Sorry - no pictures this time. Off to Torres del Paine today, the National Park that is most well known in Patagonia....... it's a long haul to get there!!!

Location:Santiago, Chile