A tourist's guide to Santiago, for tourists - Santiago

Santiago is a major metropolis housing almost half of all of Chile's citizenry and has all the charm you'd expect from a major metropolis.

WARNINGS

While the city may not look all that smoggy, be prepared for burning eyes and possibly sore throats after a day spent walking the city streets.

HOW TO GET AROUND

Santiago's subte is exceptionally clean, cheap, and frequent. If you need to get from one place to another and don't feel like walking, the subte is the way to go.

WHAT TO SEE

For a major metropolis, Santiago is not particularly culturally oriented. Missing are the plethora of art galleries one might expect from a city of that size, and what art galleries there are are interesting, but quite tiny.

Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombiano, Bandera 361, Santiago. Artefacts from before the arrival of the genocidally minded Europeans, it's interesting to walk through it and get an idea of the direction which the native populations of America de Sur evolved in: technologically, artistically, socially.

Cerro de Gloria. The hill that must be seen to be believed, it's like an illusion at a magic show except there is no curtain. Those who walkl to the top will be gifted with a fantastic three hundred and sixty degree view of the city.

WHERE TO STAY

Valparaíso, one hundred and twenty kilometres west of Santiago. Seriously, one day is enough to see all that Santiago has to offer. Arrive in the morning, see what there is to see, maybe have a supper there, and then catch a bus to Valparaíso, they leave every fifteen minutes.

Déjà en arrivant à la gare d'autobus, j'ai aimé Santiago. Je n'avais pas passé 5 minutes sur place que j'avais déjà vu plus de gens d'apparence variée que pendant toutes mes semaines à Mendoza. Ici, c'est une ville bien plus grande. Ils a plus de gens au style alternatif: tatouages, piercings, cheveux colorés, hommes aux cheveux longs et à la barbe, looks punks, hippies, rock. Les gens sont physiquement moins européanisés. Cela veut dire: les femmes son plus petites, plus rondes, moins blondes. Je me sentais comme un petit poisson dans l'eau.

On a visité des musées superbes, des parcs, des édifices, tous plus intéressants les uns que les autres.

Bémol: à part l'espagnol, j'aurais pu être à Montréal. Une partie du voyage est de sortir de ma zone de confort, ce que je n'ai pas vraiment fait à Santiago, c'est possiblement pourquoi je m' sentais si bien. Hummm, matière à réflexion.


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