Santiago, Chile

Hola! We're in Santiago, Chile. We've gained 14 hours in our lives by crossing the international date line but it feels like we still need another 14 hours sleep to compensate ... anyway, we're not complaining (really).

Santiago seems to be a pleasant, relaxed, tidy, clean and civilised city. It nestles in a valley between the Chilean Coastal Range and the Andes, like a duckling cupped in one's hands, and it's extraordinarily beautiful to see the snow-tipped Andes from the city. Snow in summer, despite temperatures (in our favourite range) of 30--35 degrees C.

We needed a bit of exercise after sitting for so long on the plane so we headed for Cerro San Cristóbal. The hill, crowned with a 14 metre statue of the Virgin Mary, dominates the city. The statue was erected in 1908 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. More than 50% of Chileans still identify as Catholic, so we assume the Church still plays a signficant role in public life.

We ascended San Cristóbal in a cable car but took a leisurely 8 km stroll back down, through an interesting assemblage of religious art.

A public swimming pool is situated halfway down the hill, at the midway cable-car stop. I think it must be quite pleasant to travel by cable-car in order to have a swim ...

The adventure park is next to the cable-car station. I took this photo as we were waiting to board the cable-car. I didn't realise that I had captured the young girl as well as the adventurer but I think this is an amusing outcome.

The streets of Santiago are wide and the city has lots of squares/plazas -- there are distinct echoes of some of the cities in Spain we've visited. Public art, street art, lots of trees and parks and gracious old buildings ... what's not to like. (Well, okay, there are also a lot of statues of Spanish conquerors on horseback.) The large silver inflatable 'cushion' is actually a pavilion that houses an architectural exhibition.

The tall shiny skyscraper -- the Gran Torre Santiago -- is a lovely feature of the city. It's the tallest building in South America and the fourth tallest in the southern hemisphere (thanks, NZ and Australia). The same team that built the Petronas Towers in KL was responsible for this one.

So, what have been the challenges? Numero uno has been communication! We have been surprised by how very, very few people speak English, which I realise sounds rather entitled. But frankly, we were less challenged communication-wise in regional China. Second has been the complete digitisation of the country. Everything is digital. Now, this is an excellent thing, but it becomes quite annoying to have to buy every ticket and order every meal on one's phone. Particularly when it's all in Spanish!

Note to self: Must learn more Spanish.

But I'm very happy and not at all grumpy. We're loving the food (empanadas! ceviche! manjar!), the pisco sours (me) and the local beers (Ken). Salud!

Next: Valparaiso, Viña del Mar and the Casablanca wine valley.