January 17-19, 2017 - Santiago, Chile, 2017 Cruise to South American & Cape Horn

2017 - Cruise to South America with Robson Ranch Road Runners, Jan 17-Feb 5, 2017

January 17, 2017 – Depart DFW-SLC or Dallas, Texas to Santiago, Chile

Made it through the TSA security check in something less than a strip search at DFW.  Even though we are registered “Known Travelers,” for some reason I kept setting off the alarm and finally had to move to the body scan machine.  Anyhow, made it onto the flight from DFW to Santiago, Chile and had an uneventful flight except for the young lady next to me who spilled her water between our two seats.

January 18, 2017 – Santiago, Chile

Arrived in Santiago early morning on January 18 and made it to the Marriott Courtyard about 9:30 am.  Took a “Hop On – Hop Off” bus tour of Santiago.  The city is a definite government, financial, university city and is very segregated by income.  The Las Condes area where we stayed is a very upscale area occupied by business owners, doctors and engineer types.  There are beautiful high rise condos and apartments, well maintained landscape and a “Galleria” type shopping center with upscale shops like Coach, YSL, Hermes, etc. The next neighborhood as you travel toward the city center is Provendencia where middle class people reside.  In the inner city and on the west side of town is the underclass section.  Not much interesting history in Santiago, but we were told that some of the art museums are quite good. And the exchange rate! 615 pesos to the US$. You were walking around with $20,000 Peso notes and all prices appeared astronomical.

     

        

January 19, 2017 – Santiago, Chile

Our second day in Santiago was spent exploring the Las Condes area where our hotel was located. We had thought that the city was located right at the base of the Andes, but it is actually several miles west.  We could only see a short mountain range that blocked our view of the Andes themselves. At the hotel, we were able to arrange a private taxi ride to Valparaiso which was more convenient than trying to get to the central city bus station and catch an inter city bus

 

Views of Santiago from Marriott Courtyard, Santiago, Chile

Edward and Elaine enjoying the views