Buena Vista Apart Hotel Las Condes

... The best food you will eat in Santiago will be Peruvian. You can get a decent steak at the many Parilladas around town, however you won&#8217;t get an outstanding steak. Most of what we would considered "Prime Grade" is exported and difficult to find in country. <br><br>Also most asian food here is not very good. Chileans are not accustomed to spice and ...

... such a short period of time when they are based on a mutually shared experience. Kind of like college, but without the dorms and classes (at least until I start school in August).<br><br> So, yesterday after meeting fellow travelers, we went out for lunch, visited Cerro San Cristobal where the French so kindly bestowed a massive statue of the Virgin Mary on a relatively indigenous peoples, we caught some dinner, and then we went out into the streets. For lunch I ate a very ...

... completely unrealistic now. All fun last minute trips are totally out of the picture. My stuff is already packed. I've said goodbye to my friends...... this is happening.<br><br> But how? I honestly cannot remember a time when I didn't have an extreme desire to study abroad. I researched like crazy, and when I found a program that would let me study in Cuzco, Peru, I jumped at the chance. I filled out all of the application ...

... br><br>Next we found ourselves a 24 hr bus ride further north in Chile's capital Santiago. At first impressions we were astounded by how large and developed this city was, far moreso than Buenos Aires in fact. We settled into an overwhelmingly backpackerish hostel, which was a converted mansion right in the city centre. We slept in our largest dorm yet (8 people!) and attempted to cook our meals there in a kitchen with about 15 other dinners ...

... when arriving in the airport...they don´t have big signs for dumb Americans like me to know which line to wait in first to pay my entrance fee, then the line for customs. Myself and mostly every other American on the plane waited in the customs line only to be told once we waited for 45 minutes to get to the front of the line to go back and wait at the end of another line to pay the entrance fee which was $131 US. Most people think of the Atlanta ...

... empanadas, and then went with Camila to have a look around the city. She showed us which was the road and the mountain were all the people from Santiago go skiing. Showed us a couple of neighbourhood universities and malls. After we had to rush back... it was match time! It was really cool to be there when Chile won. We were junping around with them, celebrating, drinking pisco sour and enjoying ourselves. Caro's dad had sorted us a visit to the oldest vine yard in Chile ...

... bags &amp; left for a 6 hour excursion up the volcano......snow capped &amp; a beautiful clear day....yet another amazing view, but this time with no crowds as we were late getting up there. Before going back we stopped off at another lake with volcanic dust for a beach, the colours in the sky were awesome....long day but worth it...others in our group partied until 3am !!! Dinner was at a local restaurant, mainly fish (double uk portions ...

... with the subway system, and decided to start exploring different parts of the city. We fell in love with Providencia, a commercial and busy part of the city with lots of trees and parks. We also explored Las Condes, which is at the very end of one of the subway lines... we got lost there for a good two hours trying to find this supposedly awesome mall and park... not ...

... Santiago, tout change. L'influence européenne, en particulier française et en particulier en termes d'architecture, dans les années 1900-1920, est flagrante. Ensuite, il y a un métro, et c'est le même qu'à Paris! Les rames sont fabriquées par Alsthom, c'est la même sonnerie, et c'est même la même odeur... :) Et pour finir, il y a plein de voitures françaises dans les rues, en particulier des Peugeot, mais j'ai vu quelques ...

... gelernt, ein Besuch in der Oberschicht. Ich war Segeln, Golf spielen und wurde von einem Hausmädchen bedient beim Mittagessen. Die Familie war wie immer hier unglaublich grosszügig und hat mich gleich für Weihnachten eingeladen, falls ich keine anderen Pläne habe. Das wars für den Moment, es ist mir noch nicht gelungen, irgendwelche brauchbaren Fotos zu schiessen, die folgen aber sobald es klappt.