Seven months today

Day 213 – Santiago, Chile

Seven months since I left! I’ll admit to start feeling some travel fatigue -or is it the just the heat? It is Summer here!

This morning I innocently asked the staff at the hostel to help me find a bus ticket to go to Valparaiso tomorrow, the 31st. I say innocently, because after being told that *everybody* goes to Valparaiso tomorrow, but finally finding a ticket, I perused my guide book and found out that the New Year’s fireworks in Valparaiso are a renowned event. A very renowned event. Guess I know what I’ll do tomorrow night!

That explains also why I had very little choice in my search for accommodation… expensive or, let me see, expensive? So I’ve booked an expensive, single room, for two nights, but I’m hopeful that if I want to extend my stay, I’ll find something cheaper after that.

That settled (well almost, I looked for the accommodation later in the day), I went to a park that looked promising on Google. It has a Japanese Garden (I haven’t found it), a castle, and a nice-looking pavilion. You will see the pictures in the gallery “Santiago”.

Santiago – View over the city

The park is on a hill, so the higher I went, the better the view over the city. It culminates with a “mirador”, or lookout, giving a wonderful 360° view of the city… and the mountains behind. There is even a snowy peak, which is funny because you hardly see the mountain for the glare of the sun, but suddenly you see the snow cap.

Santiago – The same view over the city, from the mirador

Going back down, I ended up at the Neptune Pavilion -with terrace, fountains, cafe, all the comforts a tourist need.

Santiago – Neptune Fountain

So that’s today meanderings. I could have done many more things in Santiago, but the heat makes that difficult, and Valparaiso is renowned to be more interesting, at least for its painted houses and murals.

We’ll see how that goes!