Another long flight. But not quite as long as the last, since I flew to Atlanta and then to Santiago. The ATL to SCL leg was just under 9 hours. The Monday I arrived was the 4th day of a 4 day weekend in Chile celebrating its Bicentennial. Pretty big deal for any country, and it was nice because the roads were deserted. As I did on arriving in Buenos Aires, after making my way to the hotel and getting cleaned up and a bit rested I booked a bus tour of the city in the afternoon. It is a terrific was to get some sense of the town if you are going to be somewhere for a while. So below you will find some pictures from the inaugural tour.
 |
| The view from my room. The hill behind is Cerro San Cristobal, which will appear later in this post. |
 |
| View from the rooftop pool. Those are the Andes Mountains with snow on them in the background. |
 |
| Now on the tour, the mountain in the far background is the tallest in South America, over 20,000 feet. This was taken from atop Cerro San Cristobal |
 |
| Santiago sits in a valley between the Andes and the Coastal Mountain Ranges. This is looking toward the Financial District, where my hotel is located. |
 |
| A zoom an SA's tallest peak. If you look in the upper right you will see a glacier near the peak of the mountain. |
 |
| A view from the other side of Cerro San Christobal, looking to the West. |
 |
| A tourist in front of the Cathedral in the old downtown square. |
 |
| Reflection of the old cathedral in a new building. |
 |
| The Presidential Palace. Used to be the mint for both Chile and Argentina. |
 |
| An old neighborhood that was built to look very European, which went to blight but is now in a stage of renaissance. |
 |
| Dancers doing the traditional National Dance. Something about waving a hankie over your head. |
 |
| Tourist with the dancers. |
 |
| An interesting building we drove by. |
|
|
So that was my first day. Santiago is very clean, very modern and quite inviting. It has a good "feel" to it, so I look forward to my next 10 days here.
