After a breathtakingly mystical time in Peru, we departed our new favourite country for Santiago, Chile. Our travel day was long, complicated, and exhausting but we made it safe and sound. We are two hours ahead of EST here in the southern part of the continent so even though our tour guides “allowed” us to sleep until about 7:00am this morning, we really still had to get up at 5. I have never seen 72 more tired individuals as were all of us when we finally boarded the ship this afternoon.
Before that momentous occasion, though, there was a quick city tour of Chile’s capital city and a jaunt through its renowned wine country in order to get to the port.
It is lovely and warm here at the beginning of the summer. Santiago is a very cosmopolitan city that boasts about eight-million of Chile’s eighteen-million citizens. Situated between two distinct mountain ranges, The Coastal and The Andes, Santiago is busy and very western in nature. Driving through the downtown, one could imagine being in Manhattan or downtown Toronto. Unlike Lima, the history of the city isn’t visible on every street but rather is melded deep into the neighbourhoods and cornerstones. It is very amusing to me that while in Peru, we heard of all of the victories over the Chileans while here in Chile we hear the opposite.
As we left the downtown core for the countryside, it was easy to see why this country is well-regarded for its agricultural exports and more recently its dominance on the world wine market.
We will have two more days to see more of this lovely southern country as we sail toward Cape Horn and undoubtedly I will have much more to share. Stay tuned to this space.
Bon Voyage!
(A few of you have asked for a picture of the two of us. Here you go!)
 |
| From Machu Picchu |
No comments:
Post a Comment