As I said, Pucon was not a good place to be in this season and it definitely did not suit me at all for all those rains and ugly weather. I decided to skip from there and so did another 5 others from our Gap team. We all took a bus from Pucon to Santiago and got here 2 days earlier than others and here I am now. I think the location of the hotel is just perfect in Santiago, that is one good thing about Gap, they might not get you the best hotel but they try the best location always so that you do not need to walk a lot or take taxi or public transportation. Everything is in the walking distance. It is easy to go around in this city as the map is super easy to read and the city is not that big either. I loved the Cerrado St. Lucia and Cerrado San Cristabol. The escalator ride to see the Virgin Mary and the city of Santiago by the cable car was just great, very well priced and a good one for everyone to do. I strongly recommend these two parks to all who are going to be in Santiago for tourism. The Pre-Columbian museum is one of the best museums that I have seen in South America so far, very well kept and it holds a lots of knowledge-base that I had no clue about. The Cathedral and the History museum near the main square were good as well, there were some very cool displays in the museum. The contemporary art museum at Pacedeo La Moneda was very interesting anda bit weird but was enjoyable. I really liked the Bella Vista area which is to the other side of the river(the river is something you can literally walk through, I mean I can walk through and I do not even swim!!!). I happened to be here on a Sunday so, we got the Sunday market on the street and then saw some Quaka dance, not sure if that is the spelling of that local dance. I also saw the bys doing some good tricks and dance with their drums. Although I felt like more Europe in Buenos Aires but here it feels more like North America. They literally have every junk food chain in this city of Santiago, McDonalds, Burgerking, Pizzahut, KFC, you name it. People seemed a bit more conservative than Argentina or Brazil, again, people from Argentina and Brazil seemed more friendly and outgoing and may be more like the European. Here it was a bit cold, not so much warmth, but then it seemed a bit more influence of North America. Not complaining, just my observation, it is only mine:)
I watched Angels and Damons, one of the evenings and it was one of our groupmates birthday the other night, so we went out for food. Oh, about food, I had bigger expectation from Argentina but honestly I was not very lucky to get the best food there. Whereas, in Chile, things were pricy but food was alright. I ended up buying some sweaters, shoes in Chile and definitely exceeded my budget. That is the problem in being somewhere a bit longer. More time is equal to more expenses, that is the bad point of having a long break in a nice city. I should say, I liked Santiago but probably did not love it as much as Buenos Aires, may be I am biased with a city that is more European, but what can I do??????? That is just my opinion!
I went to Valparaiso, I heard a lot about it, saw pictures and so and so. It was a colorful living town few hours from Santiago and was quite nice, I thought it was okay to visit but was not biased about it. The buidlings and the artworks on the wall were very attractive looking and impressive. I missed the sunset from there as I was not feeling that great and had to go back to Santiago before the rest of the team. I do recommend the place if you have more than 2 days in Santiago.
The central market or the fish market was a place to go even if it is pretty stinky, but if you love fish, you must not miss that. I had my first ceviche in this trip there and it was alright, am still looking forward to have the best one in Lima, Peru. We went ouas a group few nights for dinner and one the last day went out for dancing but the music was not that great, still enjoyed it though. Our group from Rio to Santiago had the last day in Santiago and a new team joined us. We lost some people, no one that significant for me, they were all okay and friendly. I had a new roomy from Santiago for the next segment of the trip, her name is Stephanie and she is from Ireland, we became very good friends by the end of our Santiago to La Paz segment trip and you will hear more of these places in between in the next posts.
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