Buenos Dias Chile

This is Santiago, capital of Chile. Its a city of 3.5 M people, quite spread out as you can see from the pictures. The city is nestled right in the shadow of the Andes which separate Chile from Argentina. There is quite a lot of smog over the city but if you look closely you can just about make out the mountains in the background. There is a real latin buzz to this place and we spent 4 nights here in total. Some very good restaurants and bars.

A major concern for our journey was of course the recent earthquake. Santiago was struck by the quake but the epicentre was 400KM to the South in Concepcion where most of the serious damage occurred. That said parts of the airport terminal are still out of action and temporary marquees have been set up in the car park for some check ins etc. Otherwise life seems to be going on as normal in this part of Chile.

Our traveling companion, Gnome out for a walkabout in Santiago.

Buenos Dias senorita....
View of downtown Santiago from Cerro St Lucia, a hill top park in the city.
This is the very Spanish style cathedral on the main square in Santiago.

In Ireland we are all familiar with Chilean Wine. One of the great things to do when in Santiago is take a trip out of town to the Maipo Valley wine region. This is L in the vineyards at the Unduragga Winery.

Ok, where can a girl get a glass of vino around here?

The picture below shows some damage to the brick work on some of the older buildings in the winery.

Next stop Southern Chile and Puerto Varas in Patagonia. Ciao.