Santiago Val Paraiso and Viña Del Mar

With a heavy heart I said good bye to Mendoza and took a superb bus ride over the Andes to meet a friend in Santiago who I was to travel with for a few weeks.

Now a lot of people don’t think much to Santiago de Chile but I thought it was pretty cool. It was good to be back in big city again, I do miss the hustle and bustle London and Santiago had it bucket loads. As a tourist spot I guess it’s not really an A1 location but it does have a teleferico (as all South American capitals seem to have) some decent shops, a cinema (yes it doesn’t take much to please me) and an underground system, we’re talking big cities now!!! Also Pinochet had just died a few days before so the place was a little testy which all added to the fun. Anyway didn’t do much there except watch movies and buy stuff…and go up the teleferico to see the city.

Then we went off to Valparaiso. This is yet another great place, a UNESCO city port full of brightly coloured buildings and some great bars and one of the best hostals in South America where I had one of the best BBQs of my life. Near by is Vina Del Mar with lovely long stretching beaches but incredibly cold sea. My time at Valparaiso was a bit of party due to Jame´s (a lad staying at the hostal) birthday, any excuse. Anyway Valparaiso is cool, go there.

Pics are:

Infront of Jesus in Santiago

A couple of views of Valparaiso