Last Day in Santiago

One of the streets near my hostel is full of people.

I pass by the Metro stop on the way to Plaza de Armas.

The Plaza is also full of people.  It feels comfortable.

Just looking at the old buildings all around.

This is the Cathedral and very near it a modern highrise.

I passed some chess players in a tournament.

I spent sometime in the local market and just hanging out in the neighbourhood.

Later, I took a couple of shots from my hostel's patio while the sun was setting.

Going to bed early tonight to get up at 3:30 for my 7:00 am flight to Buenos Aires.

Rode the Red Double-Decker Bus

Today, I used the red double-decker hop on-hop off tourist bus.  It showed quite well the different areas of the city.  I am located in what probably is the blue collar area.  It is an older area but in good condition.  There are many modest apartment buildings and small shops.

This sign is stop number two on the route, a couple of blocks from my hostel.

As I waited for the bus I got this photo of the area.  On the left is the river and on the right is a large market.

The river is almost dry as there aren't many rains to fill it in the winter.

The streets are wide and clean and the trees are starting to leaf out.

We passed through a more modern part of town which they call "Sanhattan" after Manhattan in New York.  You can see building just left of center which somewhat resembles the Empire State Building, although smaller.

There are lots of green spaces.

At the far end of the route I stopped off at the largest Mall I had ever been in and had lunch.  That area was pretty upscale.  From there we were shown an even classier area with the finest restaurants and designer stores.
I didn't stop in that one.

Here is the square of my original stop.

Central Market.

I still had time to walk over to the Funicular on San Cristobal hill.  This castle is the entrance to the train. 

I rode the funicular to the top, Bellavista Terrace, which is 300 meters above the town.  The train had large cars with no seats and could hold quite a few people.

It was a sunny day but there was smog in front of the mountains.  Still the view of the city was pretty good.

Behind me are the shops (inevitable) of Bella Vista Terrace and above them the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Beter view of the statue.

On the way down our train stopped on a side track so the train coming from below could pass.  I didn't know that could happen on a cable train.

Back on the ground, I passed the Museum of performing arts and saw it as a possible destination for tomorrow.

I don't know why touring tires me out so, but I'm ready to call it a day.

Travelling to Santiago, Chile.

Todays blog is short, basically, I flew to Santiago, Chile and not much else.

I did shoot a few more pictures as I was riding out to the La Paz airport though.  She is so photogenic.  I love the way these red brick houses cling to the hill.

They need to cling during "rain time" in case their sandy perch gets washed out from under them.

And a view down the highway.  Farewell La Paz.

My flight wasn't until 5pm but I went to the airport early because I knew they had Internet.

I flew on Lan over to Santiago and they scheduled a stop in Iquique (say E-Key-Key) Chile on the way.  We had to go through immigration there and get our stamps into the country.
The airline does that so that when we fly into Santiago we don't get charged the $135US entry fee which is only charged to persons entering Chile through Santiago by plane.  Smart.

Then we went through customs when we got to Santiago.  I had a bag of Palo Santo wood and the customs guy looked at them one piece at a time.  He found one with several tiny holes and asked me what they were.  Of course I didn't know.  He kept that one piece.  Hopefully, it didn't contain the bugs they are trying to keep out of the country.  Now I can safely take the rest to Canada.

I got to my hostel about 11:30pm and was alone in my dorm for the first night. Sweet!