First day in Santiago

After an about 26 hours trip (door to door) I arrived in Santiago this morning. First one hour flight to Zurich, from there 11 hours to Sao Paulo and from there another 3 hours to Santiago. Slept most of the time to Sao Paulo till I woke up because my back hurt. After Sao Paulo the window seat beside me was free so I switched over and took some pics from Brasil as mists were hovering over the ground.

Shortly before we reached the Andes the captain informed us that we would be able to see them and I DID take lots of pics. They do not look like the Alps at all. It was a breathtaking view .

Couldn’t see Santiago though 10 minutes later as it was all foggy and only when we were on the ground we saw something.

Imigration was fast and once again I realized they do chat with you trying to find out whether what you indicate is true. I always have to talk about beer… (they ALL ask it!). As I had booked a transfer to the hotel Jose was already waiting for me. He was a nice enough guy but conversation was somehow limited due to my bad spanish knowledge. At certain points the told me what the buildings where. What surprised me was to see vineyards in between a 3-story neighbourhood. Near the parliament we suddenly heard music and Jose told me that the guards were changing shifts. He saw that I had my camera ready and asked whether I wanted to see it. Of course I wanted. So he turned around and I could see the parade of the guys… first horses, then a band and then the soldiers marching.

Arrived at the hotel I didn’t really unpack. Makes no sense as I have to repack it all the day after tomorrow… Hotel is okay and in the middle of the city. So after a shower I took my camera and went for a first walk. It is strange to see people in winter clothes here coming from summer (although it IS warmer here than it was in Cologne… :-DDD) In this area here there are lots and lots of shops. What I don’t understand is that so many of them are selling ice-cream! Hey, guys, it’s winter! ;-)))

Walked around for about two hours and just when I was too tired to continue, the sun came out. I am NOT doing it all again to have nicer pics…

Here are a few pics…

Santiago partly reminds me of Buenos Aires and of Mexico City (no wonder as they are the only South-/Middle American cities I’ve seen so far). But in the shopping streets the music is blaring so loud… we had that in Mexico City too. Lots of guys giving ‚free hugs‘ running around. Didn’t want a hug though… ;-))))

What I hadn’t seen so far in bigger cities are lots of dogs without their owners. Some of them just lie somewhere and sleep. It’s not like they are following you but there were enough of them to catch my attention. And then some celebrations with flowers must have gone on. There were carriages with flowers in several places and I saw near one church, where people left with plants in their hands that outside some guys were standing with long sticks in their hands. At the top of the sticks (maybe 3 m long) where coloured artificial blooms and when the shook the sticks, leaves of the blooms fell out and on the people leaving the church. Haven’t found out what this meant yet.