Santiago de Chile

Santiago de Chile greeted us with flawless skies and perfect temperatures.
The city counts 7.2 millions inhabitants and sits surrounded by the Andes, while still being pretty close to the Pacific coast.
Day 1: after a relaxing morning at the AirBnB we set off for a long walk across the city with the end goal being the Cerro de San Cristobal. We stopped on the way to the Central Market for a lunch of fresh fish. The Cerro San Cristobal is situated in the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago and locals as tourists go there to admire the view of the city and the Andes as well as the 22 m high statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We spent a solid 45 minutes at the top watching (ahem making fun of 🙈) the crowd arriving at the top (many legends among them, a couple of selfie sticks).
We hiked down in the sunset and went for dinner (and gin tonics) in the bohemian, colourful and vibrant Barrio Bellavista.
Day 2: we spent several hours in a cute cafe planning our trip to Ushuaia and then went for a walk through the city. We end up going through the biggest, most crowded, chaotic, kitsch and stuffy Christmas Market we had ever seen (it was 26 degrees then) but also nice markets and relaxing parks (until a group of surexcited women started screaming and dancing next to us, celebrating the birthday of an approximately 3 years old girl with the same intensity of a royal wedding).
We then had to head to the airport for a sleepless night waiting for the flight to Punta Arenas (music volume around one million).Read more