Talking to The Walls

After waking up early and getting my morning coffee I made my way to meet up on a walking tour of Santiago’s Historic Old Town. The tour guide, Eugene, who was from Brazil knew a lot about Chilean history and was very informative on the historic buildings of old town as well as stories for Chile’s dictatorship days. This was a great introduction to Santiago as I was able to learn a lot and check out some historic building I might have just walked by otherwise. Before meeting up on the tour I was even able to witness a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace which was really cool to see.

During the tour I also got a chance to enter some of Santiago’s oldest churches, banks and libraries in which the architecture was very impressive.

After the tour was over and stopping for lunch I continued on to one of the things that drew me to Santiago in the first place, the views of the city and Andes in the distance from San Cristobal Hill. I made by way up the hill on the Furnicular and the views from the top did not disappoint. It was a very clear day and could see the snow capped Andes very clear with some even more impressive views from the Cable Car down.

Unfortunately what happened next put somewhat of a damper on the day as I scammed in a “fake taxi” scam in which was told my card/pin didn’t work however got back to my hotel and realized I was charged over $400. Luckily I was able to submit a Police Report and dispute the charges as fraud with the bank – live and learn and chalk it up to another travel adventure.

Up next was an early rise at 1:30am to make my way to the airport to catch my flight to the Patagonia region to Punta Arenas. After a long night dealing with the Police over the scamming issue and not much sleep and a 4 hour plane ride I was feeling pretty tired on arrival however was met at my AirBnB by a very kind older couple that really made me feel welcome. After a quick nap it was time to explore Punta Arenas where I found a restaurant called La Luna and had a very good shrimp octopus Ceviché.

After lunch I took a walk and discovered a very cool cemetery – Cementerio Sara Braun de Punta Arenas. I was given the tip to check out from the lady I was sitting beside on the plane ride and was glad I did as it was a very unique set up of trees and older tomb stones.

I made my way back to the AirBnB and picked up my rental car after my tour to the Torre del Paines National Park was cancelled last minute but luckily was able to find a rental car at the last minute after getting help from a local rent a car business and once again was treated very kindly to give me the opportunity to drive and see the park which can’t be missed. The kindness of others really helped me shift my focus back after a tough evening the night before.