Date: 2013-02-12 to 2013-02-14
Santiago, formally Santiago de Chile, is the capital of Chile and the center of its largest conurbation. It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m (1,706.04 ft) above mean sea level.
Chile's steady economic growth has transformed Santiago into modern metropolitan area, with extensive suburban development, dozens of shopping centers, and impressive high-rise architecture. It has a modern transportation infrastructure, including the steadily growing Metro de Santiago, a public bus transport system that is being continually modernized, and a free flow toll-based ring road and inner city highway system. Santiago is the financial, cultural and political center of Chile and home of several regional headquarters to many multinational corporations.
Our hotel in Santiago
Providencia area
A shopping mall
Date: 2013-02-13 Santiago
Breakfast is delivered to the room
Instant coffee, milk, fruit, cereal, ham, cheese, bread, butter and Jam
Ham and cheese quality is very good
Bellas Artes - Museum of fine arts
Forest Park
A Korean church
Barrio Bellavista - area with bars, arts
Funicular - to walk on steps to get to the top of the hill (San Cristobal)
It is under maintenance, free shuttle bus take us up
Pio Nono
Santiago from the top of the San Cristobla hill
The hill
A Chinese restaurant in downtown area
Crown Plaza Hotel
A bus stop
Santa Lucia
National Library
Iglesia de San Francisco
Scotia bank
University of Chile
The Palace of La Moneda
Plaza de Armas
Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago
Metro Station - Plaza de Armas
Subway is 610 peso per person
Free WiFi in one station
This station has change line transfer
The downtown area is pretty safe. When I passed Hotel Crown Plaza area, a policeman saw me with a camera. He asked me to hide the camera because from his place to next policeman is a long distance and the area is very quiet, he did not like to see if my camera got robbed by other city people. I was kind scared from his warning. So I did not climb up Santa Lucia. The area is quiet, there are people in the park area. There are policemen in the downtown area, so it is fine during the day. Overall, the city is quiet safe. It is like the other large cities, there are some pickpockets and thief. My friend Thomas told me, there could be Gypsies, they are the master and ancestor of pick pocketing.
Leaving Santiago is another interesting thing. From our hotel to the street is a short distance, we just stand there and wave at taxi passing. None of them stop at us. We asked some people in uniform to help us, they got one taxi. We told the driver to airport. He did not speak English. After a while, I asked him to stop at street and I could get some help. I asked one young man what is airport in Spanish. He told me aeropuerto. I asked him to explain airport to the taxi driver. The taxi driver stopped the meter and told us 20,000 peso (1 USD = 465 peso). The distance is only about 18 km. But, we could not bargain because we could not speak Spanish, no tool to use. It turned out the taxi trip is more expensive than Toronto.
Santiago International Airport
Duty Free is not cheap
LAN has LED screen with many movies
touch screen and flap function
LED screen, so viewing no angle problem
This Boeing 767-300 has 2 cup holders
LAN meal service - real fork and knife, not plastic
Wind is served at lunch
Miami airport terminal
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