Higlights from Santiago and Valparaìso
We arrived Santiago in Chile in the afternoon after some hours’ flight from Lima in Peru. Our plan was to visit Valparaiso and some relatives of my sister’s husband before ending up back in the capital for some days.First, we bought a sim-card and some GB for browsing on the internet. Then we picked up our rental car and headed towards Valparaiso. Our GPS (Google Maps) showed us the way and we found both Valparaiso city and our rented apartment easily. What we did not know was that we had been contacted by email by the landlord while we were in the Amazonas in Peru, asking us to confirm our booking. As we were offline the whole time and obviously did not answer that email, the landlord cancelled our booking… So we ended up booking another apartment in Viña del Mar (the neighbour town to Valparaiso) which was a scoop – both the area and the apartment! 😊
Before continuing our story; here are some facts about Chile. There are about 18 million residents in Chile and around 6.5 million inhabitants in Santiago, the capital. The main language is Spanish, the currency is Chilean peso, and the main religion Christianity and out of these most are from the Catholic Church. Chilean culture ranges from lots of nice and old architecture, great artistic expressions through street art, dance and music, and modern buildings and architecture. The people we met were very friendly and helpful.
In Valparaiso we met Camillo, the granduncle of my sister’s husband Daniel. What a fantastic man!!! He guided us for a whole day in Valparaiso and we got to see lot of things we normally would not have seen if it were not for him. We also experienced a candy fabric, the outlook over the city which was amazingly beautiful, a trip by the cable wagon inside the old city, lots of street art and a great seaside restaurant with nice food and atmosphere. We stayed only one more day in Viña del Mar sunbathing, relaxing, shopping, walking by the sea, eating churros (jummy!!!) and drinking cafe con leche before returning to Santiago for some sightseeing there.
Santiago turned out to be a very nice experience for us. We went walking in the streets, ate tasty food and desserts, watched some nice building architecture and went strolling in nice parks with lots of arts and outdoor facilities for training. We also visited a gigantic shopping mall next to where we lived and we also ended up watching “La Bella y la Bestia” on the movies – English version with Spanish subtitles of course! 😊
Our stay in Chile was limited to only 5 days, therefore our knowledge of Chile is very limited, as the country has far more to offer than we saw both regarding nature , animals, and culture. Maybe next time around we can visit the land of the penguins?
Worldwide Family Tour 