Part 1 : Santiago

Meet Hernan, the one on the left, that lives in Santiago, very good friends of Christian. He offred my to stay in his home for a couple of days, after having taken me at the airport with Rodrigo and Christian. Time to change cloth because on the South Hemisphere it's actually summer right now, and we went for a ride that took us to Anna-Maria's home, where I finnally saw "little" Nicolas, son of Anna-Maria and Christian.

Depues... We went in the center of Santiago (Mercado Central) in order to eat, before joining again with Anna-Maria and woken-up Nicolas, who demonstrated his strength and intrepidity in the Parque Forestal !

We also went to one of the finest place of Santiago (according to your humble guest) : el cerro Santa Lucia, from the top of which you have a nice view, and on the bottom of which you cas see a beautifull castle !

Just before starting the night, we met with Anna-Maria's sister and her french boyfriend, who lives in Chile since 6 years.

The night was 'regular', I met with Franco, a friend, and we went to a nightclub... Ha... Nightclubs in Santiago ;-)

Let's say just an other world ! Here you can ask a girl to dance with here. She might say no but she will most probably accept it, give you a chance, and if she is not interested, she will leave or just make you understand it.

Anyway, after having a couple of good time here, after 5 o'clock we went home : time to recover from jet lag.

...

Hernan was really kind and I could borrow his cellphone, just in cas anything goes wrong while I was alone (I was planning to leave Santiago two days after the first night). But meanwhile, I could enjoy the wonderfull place of Hernan : two bathrooms, two rooms, a living-room, a kitchen... And all that in a quite good neighboorhood, for the same price you might buy place for your car in Paris.

Whereas Christian was staying a while with Anna-Maria and Nicolas, Hernan, his girlfriend Evelyn and I went to the cerro San Cristobal, which is higher than Santa Lucia, providing also a better view ! The way to go up there was really nice, warm and not so hard :

Hernan and Evelyn

From the top of the Hill

The statue of the virgin Mary, which was a gift from France, overlooks all the hill and sometimes one could consider all Santiago. But actually even the statue could not see all the city, because Santiago is so giant, that some parts stay hidden by hills, even given this altitude...

We split after having gone down with a funicular, because I was having a meeting with Maria, wo offered the night just before to show me the city while my friends where not there.

So we went again to Parque Forestal, to the museo de bella arte (just a nice building, we didn't went in), we went to a book fest and went down Alameda.

La Moneda : presidiential chilean palace

Alameda...

Alameda is the common name of the main street of Santiago. This name come from the trees that are there, but real name of this grand Avenue, is Avenida Libertador O'Higgins, who is one of the most important hero of Chile, active during the independance war against Spain in 1810's. Let just say that this independance was precipitated by the usurpation of Spain Throne by Joseph, Napoleon's brother.

Bernardo O'Higgins

After farewell to Maria, I tryed to come back to Hernan's place but of course... I got lost for a while. I try to contact him after having walked sometime, but the phone show low batteries sign, so I asked people, including a drunk man that was already bothering a lady who made me understand by a regard that I should not ask the man for any kind of help...

Anyway, I managed home where I could appreciate the cooking skill of Evelyn, and slept.

One day after one other, I improved my spanish, which was helpfull to book the last place I needed in Patagonia. It was a little bit complicated alone, but at the end all was ok.

So this day, alone in Santiago, was the time to figure out the "real way of life" here, and I ate on a classic fast-food restaurand where I took a completo (like a hot-dog but whith other things inside). It reminded me that chilean really like "palta" very much. The palta is basically mashed avocado, and every single sandwich I had in Chile was with, so, I must say I like it ;-)

I spent the rest of the day walking in the historical center and in the new part of the town, where I found among a lot of new buildings, a monument dedicated to Jean Mermoz : a gift from the french community to distinguish all the people that permitted to enhance the relationship between Chile and France.

After having returned to La Moneda in a bus, which gave my time to enjoy the architecture of the city, I walked home to get some rest before the trip to Patagonia that was planed to begin the next day.

View from Hernan's home