Jan 29, Chile

Had a quieter start to the day, we went for a walk down to Plaza De Armas which is 4 blocks from our hotel.  This Plaza is very old dates from 1541 is quite large and a great place to people watch, as there is always a lot of people there. The Cathedral of Santiago and Central Post Office are open to the public and have the most eye-catching facades. There was a guy all covered in gold on the edge of the park under the indigenous people sculpture, it was very hot and humid and we had a chat to a guy from Australia, who live here a few month of the year while having a cold drink who said he is there every day. He also said they had a 6.9 earthquake last week glad we weren’t here.

From here we hired a uber and went to Costanera Centre + Sky Costanera which is 300 meters high and Chiles largest shopping centre.  It has 2 observation decks and the view was amazing it really showed just how large Santiago is and how densely populated it is.  After having a look and taking a few snaps it was time for a late lunch and back to the hotel in another uber. Tomorrow we check out and make our way to the HAL Zaandam – Antarctica here we come.

Jan 28, Chile

Today we hired a little Kia Morning and drove up into the Andes Mountain Range it was a beautiful day.  Mountains are very rugged, was a great drive with amazing views around nearly every bend. We ended up having to turn back before getting to the lake we wanted to visit as they had ripped up the road and it was now off road and not suitable for our poor little car,  we saw a lot, even El Volcan Chile which they have sign posts all the way back to Santiago saying it’s the escape route. It will be picture no 3. Would have liked to have had lunch in the mountains there was an enormous amount of cafes on the way but they were all closed so ended up back in Santiago and had Mc Donalds.

From there we decided to head for Valparaiso which is 120klms the other side of Santiago it is a city of haves and have nots very interesting. One side of the city people live in very colourful old houses which look like they will fall down if you blew on them and the other side is quite opulent.  The beaches are beautiful and there are some lovely old buildings but the town is definitely looking neglected in places.  All in all we had a full day of driving and saw some great sites then headed back to the hotel for a drink or two and dinner.

Jan 27, Chile

Had a good flight upgraded to business class which was lovely food was nice and bed laid flat made the flight enjoyable.  After checking in to our lovely old hotel which has lots of character, we went upstairs to the roof top bar/restaurant and had a few quite drinks to start off the holiday, was lovely atmosphere and view. The first thing we did today was have a look inside a beautiful old church in the city centre then jumped on the hop on hop off bus which covers the whole city was very interesting some parts are very old others a lot newer and cleaner. It was 34 when we got on and when we got off it was 41 and very humid. Had lunch in the park before riding the gondola to the top of Cerro San Cristobal Park which has amazing views all over the city can even see snow on top of the Andes Mountains.  We then took the funicular back down hopped on the bus again and decided it was time to go back to the hotel for a cool drink.