SANTIAGO, CHILE

Our first visit to South America begins in Chile.  It is a long way from New Zealand to Santiago!  The flight is around 10 1/2 hours and the time difference 15 hours.  We arrive at 2pm, manage to stay awake till the evening, and after a good night's sleep we are ready to explore the place.

The tour bus takes us around many of the historic buildings:

 The National Museum of Fine Art

Santiago Cathedral

The Central Post Office

and this cafe

serving traditional Chilean cakes

The funicular takes us up Cerro San Cristobal for panoramic views of the city and the Andes

The next day we take a trip to Valparaiso, a UNESCO world heritage site.  

Valparaiso was once a leading commercial port on the sea routes of the Pacific coast of South America.  Today there is much less activity around the harbour but still plenty of small fishing boats.

   

The people live in communities amongst the steep surrounding hills.

The streets are very colourful and there is some amazing street art

There is a lot of renovation taking place and care is being taken to retain the original character of the place; some of the buildings need a little more work 

 some have been lovingly restored.

It's definitely an interesting place with lots of character and worthy of preserving.

It has been an interesting few days in Chile.