After an early checkout we had a two hour bus ride to Mendoza to catch our flight, so I tried to catch up on some sleep. Fortunately the sun doesn’t rise that far west in Argentina until after 8, so it was dark for most of the drive. I only catnapped, unfortunately. But I did get to see the sunrise splashing all sorts of colors on the mountains as we drove.
Our flight to Santiago took us over the Andes, and they are beyond impressive. They spread much wider than I realized, and our flight took us between two of the highest peaks. There was an amazing lenticular cloud over one of the mountains. I also could distinctly see the snow line; I wasn’t expecting the distinct shift between white and brown.
My first impression of Santiago wasn’t great; the smog really obscured the lower part of the surrounding mountains. Our guide on our city tour said that pollution is more of a problem in the winter and I should visit in the summer. The bus took us to a high park that looked down over the modern part of the city, which was a great view even if the air quality wasn’t so nice—I could taste the pollution.
From the park we drove toward the city center. For a place that gets a lot of earthquakes, there are a lot of tunnels. Because of the earthquakes, Santiago also doesn’t have a lot of older buildings; it does have several very tall buildings, which would make me nervous. Traffic was terrible and it took some circuitous routes to get us to La Moneda, the presidential palace. Unlike other presidential buildings, no one lives in this one. The heads of government just have offices there. We couldn’t get too close to the building as the plaza in front of it had been closed off for a protest that had just finished; it sounded like teachers were protesting classroom conditions, salaries, and other problems in education.
Our tour ended at the Plaza de Armas, the main plaza in Santiago. We had a few minutes to explore the cathedral and then headed back to the bus. On the way we saw the most adorable puppy; he seemed overwhelmed by all the attention and kept turning in little circles.
Our hotel here in Santiago is nice, and I’m kind of disappointed to only spend part of a night here; we leave at 2:30 am tomorrow. The first priority after checking in was food, though. We hadn’t had anything to eat since before leaving the hotel in San Juan. Katie and Andy found us a place about a 10 minute walk away, Cocina Brava. The menus were entirely in Spanish so Mom and Dad used the Google Translate camera to decipher the menu. One of the things translated into “Suck of Crazy” so Dad naturally had to order that. It was a kind of seafood stew. It was nice to have a leisurely, non-buffet meal.
After one quick stop at a small market for snacks for tomorrow, we’re back in the hotel to try to get what sleep we can before we leave for La Paz.
here, there, and... 