Santiago – last stop of our trip in South America

After a few days in the lake district, it is time for us to get to our last stop in South America : Santiago. And to do so, we have to take one last overnight bus from Pucon. As we are waiting for the bus, we have one last view of the volcano, and as the sun sets, the colors are beautiful.

The bus from Pucon to Santiago lasts 11 hours and we arrive very early at 6:15 am… It is still dark outside when we get to the Chilean capital, and we can’t check-in to our Airbnb before 9:30 am. So off we go to try to find something opened at this time. And it appears to be pretty complicated. There are a lot of street vendors but no coffee shops. We finally find something open and get a coffee and some pastries to wake up and realize we are in a big city (first one since Buenos Aires) and there must be a Starbucks around where we can sit and enjoy some free wifi! We soon realize that here Starbucks is absolutely on every corner like in the US. So we settle down in one until it is time for us to check-in to our apartment.

It is around 10 am when we go to visit the city, without taking a shower, and with a short night of sleep behind us. As with Lima, we heard mainly negative feedback about Santiago. Apparently the city is ugly, dirty and always grey because of the pollution. So maybe we were lucky, but the sun is shining and the weather beautiful, we can even spot the top of the Andes, which is apparently pretty rare.

We start by the usual Plaza de Armas. It’s been a while !

With its impressive earthquake-proof cathedral.

Then we stroll along the pedestrian streets of the downtown area, until we reach the Central Market, built by Gustave Eiffel. And we realize that Gustave Eiffel built way more things outside of France, than in his home country. He was especially present all over South America!

Not far you can find the Vega market. This fruit, vegetable, meat and fish market took us back in time and reminded us of the markets we used to see in Peru and Bolivia. It is a mess with tons of people selling their fruits and veggies, and plenty of little areas where you can eat for cheap. It is really weird to see such a market right next to the super modern downtown area.

During the afternoon, and despite our need for a nap, we decide to do one last free walking tour. We start the two and a half hour tour in the Bellas Artes district with its murals.

Before continuing to the presidential palace where we talked a while about the Pinochet dictatorship.

And we finish the tour by visiting the cultural center of the city.

Before leaving us, the guide gives us recommendations on nice bars and restaurants. So as we hear the words “pisco sour” and “beer”, we think we have to go and try some. So right after the tour we go to enjoy our very last pisco sour in the bar called “CHPE – Republica Independiente del Pisco” , the CH standing for Chile, and PE for Peru. A place that doesn’t try to convince you that pisco comes from Chile or Peru, but on the contrary embraces piscos from both countries. So Matt tastes a pisco sour with pisco from Peru, as Maider has one with Chilean pisco. They have a pretty different taste, but are both delicious.

We end our evening in a local craft beer bar with delicious beers and a huge Chilean sandwich!

And because it was on our way back home, we stopped at the Emporio La Rosa ice-cream shop, elected as one of the top 25 ice-creams in the world! And we agree, Maider had a chocolate ice-cream, that was simply incredible. It almost felt like eating chocolate mousse… Absolutely delicious!

For our second day we start with an appointment at the hair and beauty salon for Maider, and at the barber shop for Matt before New Zealand. Because we know it will be a lot more expensive over there!

We then visit the Bellavista district, a neighborhood that has plenty of little bars and restaurants. Really nice.

We won’t climb up the Cerro Cristobal, located right by, and supposed to offer a very nice view on the city, because Maider’s knee is still bothering her.

Our last day in Santiago is dedicated to doing some research on New Zealand, because we know we will have very spotty internet once we are there. Indeed, we will be traveling all over New Zealand in a van. So we won’t have internet all the time. Which also means we might not be able to post as much on the blog unfortunately…

Our time in South America is over!

A little over 4 months spent visiting 4 countries, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile (without forgetting the 4 hours spent in Brazil).

4 amazing months where we saw incredible landscapes (from mountain to desert, without forgetting tropical water falls), met fantastic people (we think of our French friends in the South Lipez, our incredible hosts like Javier in Sucre or Ariel and Franco in Cordoba, our amazing Trek W group and the Swiss family met in El Chalten that we hope to see again somewhere during the trip), we got really cold (certainly the more cold we have ever been, with nights at 5 F without heat), Maider got her Spanish back, Matt barely learned any Spanish (but knows how to order a beer and ask for the bathroom, what else does he need?), we discovered the existence of electrical showers, Maider learned to like dogs (who figured?), Matt tasted a great number of craft beers, we lived some of our dreams (Machu Picchu, the Iguazu falls and Patagonia), we fell in love with dulce de leche (so much that we are bringing 2 lbs of it with us to New Zealand), we hiked so much that we already have holes in our shoes, we bought our wedding rings after being married for over 4 years, we survived our first earthquakes, we spent an entire month above 6,500 ft altitude, we slept in an oasis, we ended up in a Bolivian hospital, we have spent so many hours in buses, we never stayed more than 6 nights in the same place, we learned to never try to buy things between 1 and 5 pm during siesta time, we learned to dance the Tango, we were able to see the stars and the galaxy like never before, we slept in a hotel made of salt, tasted the best empanadas we ever had, and so much more!

So many memories already and we haven’t even hit the half way mark of our trip around the world! And it is very excited that we fly to another continent, where more adventures await us. Knowing that there are many other countries we haven’t visited in South America, and we promise to come back some day !!!