Day 172: Valparaiso, CHL to Santiago, CHL (125 km)
Short 125 km ride to Santiago, once again on impeccable highways. Many wineries all along. We rolled into the metropolis around 2 PM. Before starting to look for lodging, we pulled into a Walmart for a quick budget lunch. It is much less irritating to look for a hotel when you´re not empty stomached.
Days 173 and 174: Santiago, CHL
The Londres hostel, where we stayed:
We found some great ice cream in the area... Second best on this trip, on par with a joint Marco brought us in the Zona Sur of La Paz, in Bolivia.
Some shots from around the city:
A few panoramic shots of Santiago:
Some cool street art:
.... and one of the ugliest motorcycles I´ve seen. Apparently it´s German, which is hard to believe.
Short 125 km ride to Santiago, once again on impeccable highways. Many wineries all along. We rolled into the metropolis around 2 PM. Before starting to look for lodging, we pulled into a Walmart for a quick budget lunch. It is much less irritating to look for a hotel when you´re not empty stomached.
It was a Sunday, everything was closed and the city was very quiet, especially for a metropolis with a 5 million population. There was a few streets closed in the centro, as the the Santiago marathon was held that day, but it didn´t cause us much problems with traffic. However, we did struggle again to find lodging. Most of the hostels were full, because of the marathon crowd, but also because the Lollapalooza music festival was in town over the weekend. We ended up finding a very nice place in the centre of town for 48 USD, including breakfast buffet. Not that expensive, considering how nice this Londres hostel is.
Days 173 and 174: Santiago, CHL
Santiago is an awesome city. Mihai and I loved the place, and could have easily spent several more days there, as there is a lot to see. Actually, in many ways it reminds me of Montreal: the centre is modern and clean, there are many parcs (including a mountain right in the middle of the city), the architecture is a mix of european and modern north american, there are some bohemian/artsy neighbourhoods with bars and bistros, there is a state of the art subway system (similar in size to the one in Mtl, but more modern). However, Santiago has a much better climate, and the center of the city is organized in a more clever way: there are many pedestrian walkways, and it is partially closed off to traffic. Something I wish we would see more of back home.
The Londres hostel, where we stayed:
We found some great ice cream in the area... Second best on this trip, on par with a joint Marco brought us in the Zona Sur of La Paz, in Bolivia.
Some shots from around the city:
A few panoramic shots of Santiago:
Some cool street art:
.... and one of the ugliest motorcycles I´ve seen. Apparently it´s German, which is hard to believe.
Up next... We´re crossing into Argentina. We´ll be back in Chile in a couple of days.
wow nice!
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