Santiago: a nice place to visit

A few weeks ago, I made it down to Santiago (7 hrs. in bus) to go to a breakfast hosted by Fulbright. The breakfast was pretty lame, but it was nice to spend more time in the capital. Santiago is a very nice city: it's full of parks and cultural activities & relatively easy to get around in. However, I am very glad I do not live there. Being an enormous city and home to half of Chile's population, Santiago is a bit too noisy, crowded, and polluted for my taste (especially compared to la serena La Serena). However, it is definitely much more entertaining than La Serena, and while there I took advantage of some things I would never be able to do in L.S.: 1) went to the new Chilean movie 'Se Arrienda' (For Rent)...which is very good and you all should see when it gets to the U.S. in a few months, 2) went to the race track to see the horses & do some very low stakes gambling, and 3) went to an art museum and actually saw good art.


Me on top of Cerro Santa Lucia in Santiago. Santa Lucia is one of the nicest sites in the center of Santiago & a big tourist spot.


It is hard to capture just how immense the city is. This pic gives an idea. I stayed in Nunoa, which is way off in this direction to the right. It's a 20-minute micro ride away from downtown.

My visit to Santiago also coincided with a very historic event: the introduction of the TranSantiago bus system. For decades, the Santiaguino has commuted via la micro: a very ugly, rude, confusing, and flat out dangerous system of yellow graffitied buses. Practically any photo that you see of Santiago has a micro in it. However, the city just introduced the shiny, modern, polite, and safe TranSantiago bus line that will eventually replace the micros. Along with an expanding Metro system (the cleanest, most well-kept Metro I have ever seen!), the TranSantiago is changing the face of the city. In a year I am positive that the city will be unrecognizable.


This is actually a very flattering picture of a micro. Everywhere you look in the city, you see yellow....for now.


The road from Santiago to La Serena is full of spectacular views, both inland ...


... and on the coast. Although, it's hard to take pictures flying by at 120 km/h.