Adventures in Chile - Santiago, Chile

What an exhilarating feeling knowing we've finally made it to our last country and final capital city in Latin America!!

Santiago de Chile, ya hemos llegado!!!!

It's been over 7 months of travel now, and despite the fatigue that's felt by us, it's refreshing to know we've made it this far!

Crossing our final border was incredible! First impressions of Chile . . . beautiful landscape (The Andes are stunning!), nice people . . .

Throughout our entire trip we'd constantly heard that hitchhiking in Chile was a cinch . . . and indeed it was. Thus, the reason for my assumption that Chileans were very nice people! :)

Upon arrival in Santiago, however, that idea soon went away. I don't know what it was about Santiago and Santiaguinos, but I got this terrible feeling as soon as I step foot there.

Santiago is another big city with all the hustle and bustle, and let's not forget all the pollution that usually comes with the territory. One thing that really stood out, though, was this incredible feeling of inequality that seemed to be everywhere. It's definately a city of the haves and the have-nots.

As we walked down the street, it was pretty obvious that a huge social gap exists between the wealthy and the less fortunate. We had been warned by others that the social division was quite present in Chilean society, but we hadn't expected it to be so blatant. Crazy! Even poorer countries, like Bolivia or others in Central America, didn't give off this sensation. Quite disturbing, I must say.

Our stay in this capital was pretty uneventful. Got in some sightseeing, but for the most part just relaxed and spent some nice moments getting to know our hosts and new-found friends, Philippe, Carlos, and Shannon. Thanks guys, for having put up with us for so long!!!

With that said, off we go to the coast, dirección . . . Valparaíso!!!
 

Voila, la derniere capitale que nous allons visiter en Amerique, et WOW quelle surprise cette ville.

Les gens qui courent partout, qui font la gueule, les voitures qui claxonent, en bref une vrai merde!!

Et de plus j avais attrape froid, je suis reste cloitre au lit pendant 2 jours, j avais besoin d air pur, et nous voila donc partis pour Valparaiso.