Santiago, Chile - Door to the Andes
Santiago, Chile - Door to the Andes
by Günther Eichhorn |
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The biggest first impression while driving into Santiago was the traffic. It was pretty severe. There are five lanes in each direction on the main boulevard going into Santiago. The outer two lanes in each direction are reserved for buses, and they are full with them. I have never seen so many buses. This makes for quite an adventure when you finally want to turn off the main boulevard! Because the traffic was very heavy, I used the subway system to get around during my sightseeing. The subway system is very nice in Santiago.
One big problem is the pollution. There is a thick haze over Santiago. It was there the whole time I was there.
Chile is yet another one of the civilized countries where you can get money out of money machines with your bank card (as are Argentina and Brazil). Driving around Santiago is a bit of a chore because of the traffic, but not more so than in any other large city in the world. People are generally friendly, but beware of the concierges, they try to cheat you as much as they can. It happened both in Santiago and later in Buenos Aires in Argentina. I tried to get a taxi, and the concierge was eager to get one for me. Both, in Santiago and Buenos Aires, the concierge negotiated a price with the taxi driver. I later found out in both cases on the return trip, that I had paid twice as much as I should have. I assume that the concierges got a kick-back from the taxi driver.
The food can be very good when you find the right restaurant. This was a little bit difficult around the hotel that I stayed in, there were no good restaurants in that area. The person that I was visiting arranged for dinner one evening, and we had great food there.
One day I took the cable car up to Cerro San Cristóbal. From there you have a great view of Santiago with the Andes in the background on one side. From here you can see how huge Santiago is.
On my other free day I drove to a couple of nature reserves in the Andes. This is an easy day trip since the Andes are really very close. This is true for all of Chile. Chile has a very unusual shape. It is about 4,300 km (2,666 miles) long from north to south, but is on average less than 200 km (124 miles) wide from east to west. It rises from sea level to some 6,000 meters altitude in that distance. From anywhere in Chile both the Pacific and the Andes can be reached in a day trip (as long as there are roads there to begin with).
One interesting aspect of one of the nature reserves was the fact that there were cacti growing in that reserve just below the snow line.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to see much of Chile outside of Santiago. I definitely want to visit Chile again to see more of the country, not just a big city.
All pictures are © Günther Eichhorn
 Santiago with the Andes in the background from Cerro San Cristóbal. (100k) |
 Bird of prey flying over Santiago. (77k) |
 View of Santiago south from Cerro San Cristóbal. (138k) |
 Virgin Mary statue on Cerro San Cristóbal. (68k) |
 Street sign in Santiago, addressing pedestrians as Señor Peaton. (165k) |
 Andes valley near Cerro El Morado. (96k) |
 Andes valley in the Reserva Nacional "Río Clarillo". (115k) |
 Andes valley in the Reserva Nacional "Río Clarillo". (120k) |
 Road through the Andes valley towards Baños Morales. (130k) |
 Sheep high up in the Andes valley. (89k) |
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