So Long Santiago

hola from the south!
Santiago has been good to us. We checked out the Museum of Pre Columbian Art. That was pretty cool. We decided to skip the Museum of Fine Arts here while doing the sites downtown. One favourite site of ours was the Scotiabank. We really liked no fee access to our money. Hahaha. Nice that the bank has branches here. We walked up the Cerro St. Lucia which is a park with a big flight of winding cobble stone stairs. Up at the top you get an amazing view of Santiago nestled between its coastal mountains and the Andes. Like many big cities, it does get a big smog filled here. Steve wanted to check out the Mercado Central (Central Market) that specializes in seafood. Took us forever to get there and once we were inside, we were besieged with a zillion people wanting us to visit their restaurants. We were quite put off and there were a ton of cats so we got out of there QUICK!

We did a day tour of Valparaiso and Viña Del Mar. It was just ok. The weather was a little on the gloomy side on the beach part so that was a little too bad. Also, we were so used to walking all over and figuring things out on our own that we didn´t know what to do with ourselves sitting on a tour bus for a lot of the time. Steve and I ended up dosing through some of it!

Cerro San Cristobal was a sight that we had put off for a while since it was so close to our hostal so we figure we can do it anytime. We finally did it and it was really spectacular. It has a huge statue of the Virgin Mary on top of the hill looking over Santiago. We took a funicular up to that point and it was really quite beautiful and well maintained. With our ticket we also took the Teleferico (gondola) that connected the one hill with another hill and then down to another point in the city. I didn´t realize that I would be so scared in that thing! We were really high up and I didn´t feel all that safe. After a bit, I got over it and enjoyed the magnificent views of the city and also of the houses in the fancy neighborhood of Providencia. Surprisingly, we enjoyed ourselves a lot more than expected to San Cristobal.

Today, we ventured off to the area of Pirque where the famous Concha Y Toro vineyard is. This is the company that makes the Casillero Diablo wine that we enjoy quite often at home. We had a fantastic time there. The visit was fascinating and of course, tasting the chardonnay, then a glass of cab sauv of the Casillero Diablo label and then a cab sauv of a more premium label, Marques was a nice touch. Too bad Jules, I didn´t think of checking out Santa Cruz until the other night and then just ran out of time. Would have been cool to check that one out too!

We head to Easter Island tomorrow so tonight is laundry night for us here at the hostel. We are hoping that we will have enough stamina to go out for a bit later tonight for at least a nightcap for maybe a last glass of Carmenere while in Chile. Ciao for now!