more wanderings

Today we left around 10 to commence our day of walking. We started by booking a trip with Pachamama by Bus to take a 5 day tour from Santiago to San Pedro in a few weeks. It should be tons of fun because we're going to little places that most tourists don't see. After booking we ended up at the Catedral on the Plaza de Armas. The Catedral isn't as ornate as the cathedrals of Europe, but it was big and had lots of marble. The history museum is on the Plaza of Armas also, so we hit that up. It's an excellent museum with great details about Chilean history.

For lunch we got food from one of the many Chinese restaurants that actually have Chinese people working in them! I love being in Santiago and seeing people from other countries.

After lunch we headed up to the Barrio Bellavista area. We went into the Museo de Bellas Artes, which had some of the most unique artwork I've ever seen. Apparently they change the exhibits around a lot, and this rotation has a lot of mixed media works. The building which houses the museo was also beautiful inside with great details.

The Barrio Bellavista definitely lived up to it's reputation as the Bohemian neighborhood of Santiago. There were tons of art galleries, mosaics in the sidewalk, 2 blocks of street cafes, and tons of young people. Barrio Bellavista also is where all the artesania vendors gather. There must have been about 60 different stands scattered throughout the neighborhood. The area is definitely worth a visit and a bite to eat just for it's atmosphere.

Right next to Barrio Bellavista is Cerro San Cristobal. We took the funicular up, and I'm glad we did. The view of the city was spectacular! Unfortunately there was a ton of smog, so we couldn't see all the way to some of the mountains. At the very top of the hill is a open air church with a huge statue of the Virgen Mary, which, being in Chile, has a huge radio tower right next to it. (Thank god I can airbrush my photos later!)