Bus from Arica to Santiago, 7 November 2007
Santiago, Chile, 8 - 10 November 2007
From Arica we drove through desert (Atacama), desert & more desert for the most part of the 30 hour journey. We arrived in Santiago and took the Metro system to our accommodation in Santa Lucia. Thankfully we had no difficulty finding the place. I (Dave) did some reconnaissance of our locality while Claire caught some z´s. Our accommodation, The Green House, was within easy walking distance of the city center. .
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That evening Claire and I took a walk to the Plaza de Aramas & enjoyed a splurge in The Majestic Indian restaurant. Because we´re worth it.
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Next morning saw us taking another metro journey to the Las Condes district where we visited the Qantas office. Our flight to Auckland was booked for the 6th of December (less than a month away). We wanted to move it out to mid/late Jan. The guy in the office nearly laughed at us. He said there is only one flight a day and it is fully booked until March. However, he wasn´t a bad old bloke and started checking every day from mid January onwards looking for availability. He eventually found 2 seats on the 10th of February. Claire and I consulted quickly and decided to take them. We then went next door to Starbucks to allow the idea of 3 more months in South America to sink in. A little daunting really. On the upside it is the perfect time of year to be heading south to Patagonia.... and we´re certainly going to have the time to enjoy it. Following our coffee we went to the bus station and managed to get the last 2 cama seats on a bus to Pucon in the Lake District on Sunday night. A mere 10 hour journey. Then it was off to the cinema with some Dunkin Donuts for the afternoon. We saw Premonition with Sandra Bullock. We´ll give this one 3 and a half stars. It was pretty gripping. It´s nice to go to the movies and watch a movie that you haven´t seen any previews for or heard anything about. .
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We also took ourselves off to the Concho y Toro vineyards, home of Casillero del Diablo. The weather was perfect and we had 3 different wine tastings in 3 different parts of the vineyard. Down in the deepest darkest cellar, where the devil hangs out, we saw the super expensive vino. The myth about the devil was created by the owner to prevent the locals from stealing his best wine. Being about 150 years ago people were still very naive and believed the story. After that no more wine disappeared.......The remainder of our time in Santiago was spent exploring more of the parks and plaza's. Claire's memory was triggered when we entered the park at Santa Lucia. She claims that she remembers watching Michael Palin in Full Circle in the park being intrigued by all the lovers on the benches.
At the vineyard
Chile currently exports more than 70% of it´s total wine production & Cabernet Sauvingnon is the most widely planted grape in Chile. The two big export markets being the UK followed by the USA. Lonley Planet, 2006
Popular street decoration in Las Condes area
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