After breakfast, included in the cost of accomodation, we started to walk to the Cerro San Cristoball which is a hill
in Santiago. As we were walking there we
came across the Museo de Bellas Artes which is an art museum. So we went to have a look at that. It cost us 1200 pesos for the both of us to
enter (NZ $4). The building is beautiful
that the museum is in. But i can't say
the same for the art work. The art work
was very strange, not that Im that big of an art man...
After our look around the art museum we headed to Cerro San Cristoball. We had to take the funicular (cable car) up
the hill which cost us 3,600 pesos for the both of us (NZ $11), return. The cable car took us up 485m. It was very steep. Once at the top of the hill we had a great
view of the city of Santiago de Chile.
The thing that stood out was the smog.
There is a thick layer of smog that sits above the city. We have taken photos, but not sure if they
show this very well. The other thing we
noticed was just how large the Andes are!
They are far bigger than any mountain range i have ever seen. After taking our scenic photos we walked an
extra 20 meters up the hill to see the Virgin Mary. She is a very large statue and overlooks the
city. We then took the funicular back
down to the bottom of the hill. As we
were waiting for the funicular to leave, this Chilean man starting
playing his guitar and singing to us in Spanish, of course he wanted a tip once he was finished.
After going to Cerro San Cristoball we headed to Santa Lucia which is the
location of the old cemetery (the cemetery has been moved). This is up a small hill and again you can get
a bit of a view of the city skyline. There
was this awesome palace here, so we got a few photos in front of that. After this, we went for one last walk through
the city centre and then started to head back to our hostel. On the way home we stopped into a fast food
restaurant which sells American style hot dogs and we got two hot dogs and a
coke for 1,450 pesos (NZ $4.50).
So over the last few days we have really covered the sites of Santiago. Still struggling on the Spanish but the places where we are heading to seem to speak abit of English which is fantastic!
Throughout the city there are alot of smokers about, also some impatient and erractic drivers!! We have also noticed a few students in shabby clothes and with paint all over them trying to raise money. Apparently, and I think this is how it goes, the second year students get all of their clothes taken from them and they have to raise a certain amount of money to get their clothes back. All of the money goes towards organising a party for the first year students. Sounds pretty good to me!
Tomorrow we head off to Valparasio which is a coastal city about a couple of hours from Santiago.
The internet here is very dodgy, but dodgy I mean pretty slow and unreliable. We are constantly being disconnected and pages are taking ages to load up.
Cerro San Cristoball - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Crist%C3%B3bal_Hill
Santa Lucia - http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/South_America/Chile/Region_Metropolitana_de_Santiago/Santiago-1558248/Things_To_Do-Santiago-Cerro_Santa_Lucia-BR-1.html
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