Day 4 - Santiago

We are really enjoying slowing down a bit and taking some time to explore the city. It is also helping us cut back on the spending.

In the morning we visited the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, another recommendation of Franco's. The museum reflects on the human rights abuse that took place under the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990. The museum is free to walk around but everything is in Spanish so we decided to pay for the audio guides. We are so glad we did and we learnt so much. It is truly terrifying to learn about the terrible things that were still happening in our lifetimes.

After a couple of the hours at the museum and perhaps feeling a little emotionally exhausted, we went for a stroll around a nearby park and watched the ducks before heading to the bus station to purchase tickets for the next leg of our adventure.

We weren't entirely sure where we going to go next when we got to the bus station however after checking out our options and the costs, we opted for San Pedro de Atacama. Unfortunately there were no bed seats left so we have a 24 coach journey to look forward to with semi reclining seats!

We were pretty hungry by this point so headed back to Plaza de Armas to grab some food for lunch. When on the tour, Franco told us about a traditional Chilean dish, the pino empanada. This is an empanada with meat, onion a boiled egg and an olive so we both decided to have one for lunch. It sounds a bit strange but it actually tasted pretty good. You have to watch out for the olive though as they don't take the stone out.

We then spent the next hour or so people watching in Plaza de Armas. There is so much going on, it can keep you entertained for hours.Read more