Santiago de Chile

My third Santiago this trip. It surprised me how developed the city is. No kids living on the streets and/or selling things. It's clean. It has a very good transportation system. The traffic is quiet. It's safe to cross the street on a green man. Because of the surrounding hills and mountains with snowy peaks it seems quite small.

The first day I was well enough to do something, I went to the winery of Concha y Toro, Chile's biggest wine producer. Most famous abroad for Casillero del Diablo, "the devil's cellar". We had the luxury tour, with tasting of five wines with an expert. How she managed to smell and taste all the things she did, neither me nor the australian who was with me understood. But we agreed the wines were good.

Thanks to the laundry that still have most of my clothes, I've finally had the chance to do some shopping. Felt great! Wonderful to be able to buy hand-made designer clothes. As Buenos Aires, Santiago also have some bohemian areas with nice cafés and charming boutiques. Spent some hours the past week with a book and a glass of wine, just enjoying the atmosphere in these.

Argentina consists of mostly european immigrants, meaning blue eyes and blonde hair is common. Here the population is more indigenous, and Santiago has one of the worlds best and most important museums about the pre columbine time. Very interesting, and worth a visit. As the National historical museum, that tells about the countries history since the last ice age. In the last one you should speak spanish though, none of the information is in english.

Originally my plan was to stay a couple of nights, then a couple of nights in Valparaiso before returning to Argentina. Thanks to the quality on my passport, I had to stay a lot longer waiting for a new one to arrive from Norway. The embassy can not make passports. A bit strange in my eyes, is that not one of the things travelling norwegians usually need their help for? Luckily it got here yesterday, so now I'm on my way up to northern Chile. Almost 24 hours on a bus, but good to be on the road again. Only two more weeks on my own down here! And not too bad with such a long bus trip, when you have a bed.


-- Posted from my iPod
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