Santiago de Chilé

I took a flight from San Pedro to Santiago de Chilé to spend a couple fun days in the countries capital city. Arriving at my hostel, I met an American couple, Nina and Ahlyzik, who I would spend lots of time with in both Santiago and my next destination of Valparaiso. We had dinner together the first night, then took a walking tour the next morning. It was a great tour for a flavor of the city. We started out in a beautiful park area beside Museo Bellas Artes.

First stop was the oldest market in the city, the fish market.

The central part of the market has lots of restaurants and a beautiful metal building.

We continued the markets with the biggest one, Vega.

No shortage of amazing looking produce.

Our next destination was the city cemetery which is seriously huge so we spent a good chunk walking there.
It starts with smaller graves stacked on top of each other in the rows. Called the 'apartments' by our guide.

We moved onward to bigger mausoleums which she called 'houses'...

Through to ones nothing short of 'mansions' and ones that were very unique and fancy.

It's so green throughout, it feels like a park.

We also passed a special grave site that the story goes was either a child who was mistreated and died, or a prostitute who's friends changed her story to be that of the child's after she died. People leave tons of flowers, toys, offerings there.

After the tour, Nina, Ahlysik and I went back to the market for lunch and enjoyed some time shopping for salad ingredients and salmon for supper! It was so fun. Got a little cotton candy for the way home as well (not my first cotton candy or my last, it's just as good here as home!!! )

We enjoyed an evening cooking, hanging out in our boutique hostel and drinking wine.

I continued the Chilean wine vibes with a wine tour the next day. Concha y Toro is one of Chilés most known wineries so naturally I signed up for the Monday morning tour (and had a few extremely rewarding moments thinking of other people's Monday mornings while I was in Chilé drinking wine, sorry guys, couldn't help myself!!).

The tour was just myself and Martin from Sweden. We walked into the vineyard to see the different grape plants and the beautiful view..

Then into the newer cellars...

Before going down to the Devil's cellar, which their most popular wine, Casillero del Diablo, is named for. It was a legend started by the vineyard owner to deter people from stealing his private stash of wine. Which seemed to work!

The tastings were great, the guide was great, I loved the tour and the winery views.

After getting back to the city, the wine day continued for Martin and I with lunch and another bottle of wine, before going to the viewpoint near to my hostel. Cerro San Cristobal has a funicular that a seriously great view of the whole city.

Could have stayed up there for a looooong time!

We bought some more wine on the way to the other hostel, then met the other guys back there for dinner (I introduced Martin to Taco Bell, conveniently right next to the hostel). I stayed up pretty late having wine with a few guys from the hostel and it was preeeettty fun! Got to enjoy a nice evening on the hostel's amazing rooftop patio.

And that was it for Santiago. Quick visit before heading to Valparaiso!!