Bike About South America with Stuart and Anita

So we have touched down, safe and sound in Santiago and begun hovering around the streets like tourists.  We're staying in Hoteles Plaza Londres in the hub of the city in the London quarter.  Its mighty cute with its small scale colonial buildings and cobblestone streets with low level wrought iron lamps. The building itself has a bit of charm with its parquetry floors, French doors & Juliette balconies' mustard wallpaper, burgundy carpet and grand rustic spaces.

Yesterday (Monday) was our first full day in Santiago. We put together our bikes and headed north east to the 'Double Bay' of Santiago – Vitacura (and Provendicia).  The city has a European vibe with cobblestone streets, small independent shops, bookstores and specialties. It's quite charming and far from the rough and gruff of the south west inner city, near where we stay...which seems to specialize in fire arms, weapons and fishing/camping gear.  I guess there is a street for everything....ironically the avenue for firearm stores run to the footstep of the presidents house in the same way the national war memorial runs to the Canberra parliamentary house.

We've ridden our bikes around the city, sipped on hot lattes, ventured into Barrio Brasil on the sardine packed trains, been stalked by juveniles with a keen interest in our possessions and negotiated better bargains with our dodgy Spanish (which is improving at a rapid pace).  The weather here is much warmer than expected; we are now considering whether we will go north west to Valpariso or south to Bariloche.  We will consider it further tomorrow.

Tomorrow we hope to get tickets to a soccer match in Santiago.....which is huge here! We watched some of the Aurora (Bolivia) vs Universidad de Chile game this evening and everywhere we walked after half time people were glued to any and all available televisions. 

Ciao!

Anita (and Stuart)