Just around the corner from our hostel Residential Londres, in the centre of Santiago, on the pretty cobbled streets, some rose petals.
We also had a great Italian restaurant around the corner too, that was uber cheap and convenient!
Our hostel reminded us of the place where we stayed in Bogota, Colombia. It had the same nice squeaky wooden floors and five blankets on the bed to fend off the cold...and we did need them at night too. It was really funny to be on the ground floor and hear peoples conversatons outside the window, we also heard a zipper being undone...oooh, close the shutters, far too much info!
The impressive Biblioteca National, just across the road from our brekkie haunt 'Paradiso'. This eatery also served hot dogs, that were being wolfed down at breakfast time by the locals on the hoof to work. We stuck to medialuna's and cafe con leche.
Wiji climbing over the concrete blocks and mesh fencing to get a look at the Teatro Municipal, it was having a makeover..boo. We would have loved to have gone inside. It was a shame that the Teatro in BA was in the same state of repair too.
The post office, lol...it doesn't look like this in Newton Abbot! Sadly (or fortunately, for Wiji) we didn't have anything to post!
In the main square, Plaza de Armas, hanging out with the homeless in the sun...the Catedral Metropolitana. Quite a few stalls were set up here selling paintings.
LMAO, I nearly couldn't get this snap for laughing! What a great look this would have been for Capel's Casino themed party...and your lil' dog too!
Checking out the pics of the Olympic games...here Wiji is quite confused over the 'characters' that have been created for the Beijing emblem...well it is Chinor!
Us looking at a pic of a person looking at a sculpture, and taking a pic of it...we really do have some free time fo-sho, when were not blogging it up or doing the washing! Lol.
Goodness gracious! Massive magazine stands a go-go! What we didn't realise for a while is that they have all the lovely mags on the front...then full-on porn mags on the back of the stand...tut, tut! After a good look we STILL didn't find an international Guardian. Lucky for me that Ledge Fenn scanned in the Jolie-Pitt family Hello! snaps, or I'd never know what was happening in the real world. Cheers lovely!
Wiji managed to find the place to get the biggest ice-creams ever...Bravissimo Gelateria! No, not the British bra company for ladies with large boobs, but on-mass multicoloured ice-cream, in huge tubs, for virtually nothing...he was really happy!
Fab sunshine and a crispyness in the air, I was chuffed I had brought myself a new hoodie in BA. Checking out the Templo de Santa Domingo, stunning.
As pictured on the Peso coins, B.O. Higgins once lived here.
Lots of lovely and security conscious ironwork.
It was here, admiring the Ex-Congresso National, that Wiji said to me he really felt that perhapse he had seen enough of colonial architecture, and that he really was ready for the South Pacific...oh? Really? Lol!xxx
Aaaah, reminding us of Covent Garden, London...with a similar glass walk way.
'Oh no, midget gringo can't get into magic golden palace'. I was really tempted to do the unveiling myself, but Wiji was having none of it, oh well. This was a bank.
My idea of visiting one last authentic market in South America was destroyed when we took the rather long taxi ride to the Pueblitos Los Dominicos, an artesania village, (Santiago's biggest crafts market) and found that it was far too similar to British Trago Mills....Aaaarrrgggghhh! Impossible to retain a silent scream. There were poor baby animals waiting to be pets in tiny cages everywhere, and far too many small children on the loose, it was a nightmare...we left.
Just around the corner from the hostel on the church door, photos from the Pinochet era of the missing and disappeared.
Looking everywhere for a second hand English book exchange to no avail..but we did see a set of three of these tower blocks, very intriguing to me.
After much rushing around we decided to have a break and get the Furnicular railway up to Cerro San Cristobal, to view of the metropolis below.
The Virgin Mary. At night blue neon light flash around the statue...not entirely sure the lighting choice is appropriate.
It were gurt cloudy though. Or is it smog? It was quite overcast...Wiji was a bit downcast too as the taxi driver had taken us to the wrong end of the telefonico...so no cable car ride for us then?
Hurumpf! Boo-hiss-boo.
Yes you can just about make out the snowy capped Andes that surround Santiago!
We really had so little time to explore Santiago...we would like to return to Chile.
I just couldn't look...far too vertical.
Look away now! Sadly when I did I had a small child chewing sweets in my face who was in the car above us. Ewww.
Aloe Vera plants in flower, at full speed on the Funicular!
At the bottom...a nice old piccy of how it was built. A job and a half.
Making our way next to the the area Barrio Bellavista to check out some of the Lapis Lazu shops...hummm, just looking. Santiago is massive and has five districts listed in the Lonely Planet for visiting (a bit like BA), all with their own unique characterisics.
We came across these great sculptures of bull's at the market in Barrio Bellavista. We then had several Pisco Sours in the evening here, enjoying the chilled market vibe.
Great metal stone combo.
After reading up about some of the sights we came across one that we defo had planned not to patronise. A 'cafe con piernas' (literally a cafe with legs), usually with mirrored doors, like the very same below. Exclusively for men to get a drink in, served by women in bikini's...oh dear. We saw a middle aged business man pop into this one, how sad.
Goodbye Santiago, sorry we didn't get more time to explore the city. And goodbye to South America...for a while, at least.
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