Two Wheeled Texan: Santiago

After surviving the fire of Valparaiso, we jumped on a bus and headed to Santiago.

One of the best options for lodging in Santiago is an Aparthotel. Real estate moguls purchase apartments and rent them out by the night to tourists at a modest rate for both parties. We ended up paying $90/night at Lastarria Santiago Suite. The hostess, Vivianna, was very helpful in every stage of the booking and even offered to call us a cab to the airport when we took off. The rooms were very well-kept with daily maid service, they had strong WiFi, and had a good view of the Santa Lucía hill.

Additionally, the location in the Lastarria district was very convenient for everything that we wanted to do, from shopping to tourist activities. It is a very well-preserved sector of Santiago and boasts some of the nicest architecture. Before the bohemians started moving in, Lastarria was once home to some of the richest families of the city.

We set out the first afternoon to traipse around the park and found ourselves slowly making our way up the hill.

When first constructed upon, the hill was without vegetation. As part of the design process a great deal of landscaping was installed in the late 1800s. It survives to this day only as a result of a sophisticated irrigation system.

At the very top of the 15 million year old volcano you will find a small turret. While it was once used as a superb vantage point for protecting the city, it has since been reduced to a tourist Mecca.

The view from the top. Slightly obscured by the less historic buildings, you can see a view of the Andes mountains in the background.

After having great success with the Tour4Tips in Valparaiso we headed out early on a Wednesday morning to catch the same tour in Santiago. First stop: the Presidential Palace.

Having walked around the day before, we did not expect to see too many new things and were primarily hoping to hear the story of the city. Much to our surprise, we had barely seen a fraction of the city. One of the older sectors of the town, the business district, contains a great deal of Spanish architecture.

No Santiago tour is complete without a trip on the subway. This station, like many others, grouped with local artists to add color to the underground setting in the form of a mural.

We were told that this facade was copper, utilized to show the strength of the copper in the local economy. Unfortunately, I don't think that the tour guide noticed the iron oxide forming on the edge of the unfinished steel panels.

Hopefully someone can remember the name of this building for me. It was once built by Salvador Allende and then later used by Pinochet as a point of operation during his dictatorship. While it was nearly leveled in the activities following his removal from power, the Chilean people came from all over the country, working for free, to complete the reconstruction in a timely manner.

This is the view on our way to Las Condes, where the rich families "supposedly" moved after they fled from the Lastarria district. According to our tour guide, the process happened practically overnight and left several buildings vacant, as the owners did not want to associate with the new arrivals.

Some may have argued that we were lost at this point - I prefer to think of it as meandering/discovering.

One of the few statues to leave Isla de Pascua, this guy keeps watch over the highway.

As previously mentioned, Santiago is world-renowned for its architecture.

This is one thing that we certainly do not have in Antofagasta: animals (unless you're counting the thousands of street dogs). We started the day with the intent of riding the funicular to the top of Cerro Blanco, but after being deterred by the lengthy line, we quickly deferred to the zoo.