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.