In Santiago, and there's a bunch of pics
Sorry for the lack of updates in the last 2 days, but it has been a bit hectic. I left Cusco around 4:30 on Thursday I think it was. The flight was a bit delayed, so I was worried about catching my connecting flight in Lima. I made it in the end, so it wasn't a big deal, and got into Santiago at about half past midnight. Got to the hotel around 1:30 and found out I was being picked up at 7:40 the next day. So much for a nice sleep!
Anyway, back to Cusco - before I left, I went and looked around the Temple of the Sun/Monastery of somebodyorother. Basically this Incan Temple of the Sun was there for a long time, then the Spanish Catholic Conquistadors barged in and said "Right, that's enough of your 'orrible Pagan stuff" and built a Catholic monastery on top of the temple. I guess they couldn't demolish the temple as it was so well built, so they were forced to leave some of it intact within the monastery. Pics of that are below.
Santiago is like Toytown I have come to conclude. It has the most bizarre combination of low-rise two story dwellinghouses right next to a 20 story office block. While Lima was mostly low-rise from what I saw, Santiago has lots of brand new, strangely lego-like buildings, along with a few you could swear are based on those large wooden blocks with half-circles and so on that are in Noddy's Toytown. It seems like a lively cosmopolitan city, and I had no qualms about walking for half an hour over to meet a new friend for dinner after dark (although I was lazy and got a taxi back). In contrast to Peru, Chile seems to be highly Westernised, with Burger Kings, Starbucks, Pizza Huts, TGI Fridays, and much to my amusement, a Hooters!
My first day trip from Santiago was a wine route trip, where we visited 2 wineries, had lunch somewhere and went to a museum. The wine started flowing sometime around 10 am, so by the afternoon we were somewhat tipsy. There are a few pics below of the wineries. The museum we went to was a fairly unimposing one from the outside, but its facade belied its true size. It was basically a Chilean history musem, with exhibits ranging from fossilised ammonites and amber-encrusted insects, to Andean jewelery and historic carriages and motor cars. There was easily enough stuff in it to keep you busy for a full day, but unfortunately we only had an hour there. Still, it was a good stop off.
The second day trip which was today, was over to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar over on the coast of Chile, West of Santiago. It was a beautiful day today (as have been all the days I've been in South America with the exception of one of the early mornings at Machu Picchu), and the drive over was nice, sitting under the air conditioning in the bus, while being bathed in sun through the window. Valparaiso is a fairly poor city, but it contains the Senate/Congress/Parliament whathaveyou building, a bizarre building which kind of reminded me of the big transport ships in Tron (classic 80s cheese film for those of you who don't know it).
There's the Chilean senate building...no wait!
It is interesting in Valparaiso, it's a city on 42 hills, and there are 15 working funiculars which transport the local populace up and down at a cost of 150 Chilean Pesos (about 15 of our New English Pence). There are no rich or poor areas, and as we had pointed out by our tourguide, they live side by side. There was a beautifully designed house which was attached on one side to a large shack of cobbled together corrugated metal painted lime green.
Viña del Mar is a bit more upmarket and it is quite reminiscent of a South of France resort town, with beautiful but expensive beachfront properties. It apparently has a very lively nightlife, and the beaches were stunning. The sea is fairly cold all year round, going from 7 degrees C in the winter to a maximum of about 13 in the Summer. This is because the currents run from Antarctica up to the coast of Chile, so the water can never really get warm. Despite this, there were a few hardy souls who were wading and even jumping right in.
It's now 10:30 in the evening, and because it's taken me so long to upload all these pictures, I'm probably going to stick to room service and get an early night, rather than try to venture out elsewhere.
Tomorrow I fly to Punta Arenas and I'll be there for one night before going to Torres del Paine for 4/5 days(I think I'm getting that the right way around). I'm not sure what internet access I will have if any, so don't be too surprised if I don't update for a while. I'll try to obviously, but it may be beyond my control.
Ta-ta,
Ken
Anyway, back to Cusco - before I left, I went and looked around the Temple of the Sun/Monastery of somebodyorother. Basically this Incan Temple of the Sun was there for a long time, then the Spanish Catholic Conquistadors barged in and said "Right, that's enough of your 'orrible Pagan stuff" and built a Catholic monastery on top of the temple. I guess they couldn't demolish the temple as it was so well built, so they were forced to leave some of it intact within the monastery. Pics of that are below.
Santiago is like Toytown I have come to conclude. It has the most bizarre combination of low-rise two story dwellinghouses right next to a 20 story office block. While Lima was mostly low-rise from what I saw, Santiago has lots of brand new, strangely lego-like buildings, along with a few you could swear are based on those large wooden blocks with half-circles and so on that are in Noddy's Toytown. It seems like a lively cosmopolitan city, and I had no qualms about walking for half an hour over to meet a new friend for dinner after dark (although I was lazy and got a taxi back). In contrast to Peru, Chile seems to be highly Westernised, with Burger Kings, Starbucks, Pizza Huts, TGI Fridays, and much to my amusement, a Hooters!
My first day trip from Santiago was a wine route trip, where we visited 2 wineries, had lunch somewhere and went to a museum. The wine started flowing sometime around 10 am, so by the afternoon we were somewhat tipsy. There are a few pics below of the wineries. The museum we went to was a fairly unimposing one from the outside, but its facade belied its true size. It was basically a Chilean history musem, with exhibits ranging from fossilised ammonites and amber-encrusted insects, to Andean jewelery and historic carriages and motor cars. There was easily enough stuff in it to keep you busy for a full day, but unfortunately we only had an hour there. Still, it was a good stop off.
The second day trip which was today, was over to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar over on the coast of Chile, West of Santiago. It was a beautiful day today (as have been all the days I've been in South America with the exception of one of the early mornings at Machu Picchu), and the drive over was nice, sitting under the air conditioning in the bus, while being bathed in sun through the window. Valparaiso is a fairly poor city, but it contains the Senate/Congress/Parliament whathaveyou building, a bizarre building which kind of reminded me of the big transport ships in Tron (classic 80s cheese film for those of you who don't know it).
There's the Chilean senate building...no wait!
It is interesting in Valparaiso, it's a city on 42 hills, and there are 15 working funiculars which transport the local populace up and down at a cost of 150 Chilean Pesos (about 15 of our New English Pence). There are no rich or poor areas, and as we had pointed out by our tourguide, they live side by side. There was a beautifully designed house which was attached on one side to a large shack of cobbled together corrugated metal painted lime green.
Viña del Mar is a bit more upmarket and it is quite reminiscent of a South of France resort town, with beautiful but expensive beachfront properties. It apparently has a very lively nightlife, and the beaches were stunning. The sea is fairly cold all year round, going from 7 degrees C in the winter to a maximum of about 13 in the Summer. This is because the currents run from Antarctica up to the coast of Chile, so the water can never really get warm. Despite this, there were a few hardy souls who were wading and even jumping right in.
It's now 10:30 in the evening, and because it's taken me so long to upload all these pictures, I'm probably going to stick to room service and get an early night, rather than try to venture out elsewhere.
Tomorrow I fly to Punta Arenas and I'll be there for one night before going to Torres del Paine for 4/5 days(I think I'm getting that the right way around). I'm not sure what internet access I will have if any, so don't be too surprised if I don't update for a while. I'll try to obviously, but it may be beyond my control.
Ta-ta,
Ken
posted by Ken at 2:58 am
1 Comments:
Duly corrected, ta!
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