Chile page 4
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If the Essendon Bombers and the North Melbourne Kangaroos were to merge... and purchase a bunch of fire engines... then their headquarters would probably look like this
The universe laughs at me again... one last time before I leave for home... more steps! Well, at least I'm not at altitude.
Guess what...? Another panoramic shot. This time... its a 360-degree shot. (click the picture - this one is quite big, be patient)
Santiago (7/6/07 - 9/6/07)
I've been here before... so there wasn't the manic urge to rush out and see as much as humanly possible in the limited time that I had. So I just chilled in my hotel... enjoying the view over Ave Providencia.
Although it was a bit cold, smoggy and hazy... unlike the last time I was here, in the middle of summer, the sunsets were still quite beautiful.
Later that night I was reunited with Nick... and the next day the weather cleared up, so we went for a little stroll.
Thinking that it would be nice to get a view over the city, we found ourselves a cable car to take us to the top of Cerro San Cristobal.
The view from the top was pretty nice... but... the smog obscured most of the Andes mountain range from view
The way down was a bit steeper... and we took the funicular rail. This one was very efficient, requiring only one set of tracks for most of the way except at the point where the cars cross, where it splits.
When we came back down, we wandered through this park, where this path seemed to go on forever.
And there was some strange and random art... which had lots of graffiti on it... which, in a strange way, added to the art.
On the way we were ambushed by some Gypsies... who offered to read Nick's palm but instead tried very hard to steal his money.... the ploy almost worked, but didn't quite.
Near the middle of town, there was another small hill... this time with a castle in the middle of it, amongst some lovely gardens...
And a very nice fountain... (see, I'm NOT addicted to long-exposure shots of water flowing... that sounded really wrong for some reason)
An interesting piece of artwork...
I never knew before, but apparently... Paris and London intersect... right here!
Returning to the Plaza de Armas was a strange experience. The last time I was here, in October 2003, I was in a very strange emotional place... just after my first comedy night, just after writing about 8000 words of assessment in 3 days with about 3 hours of sleep... and just before my first world championships in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. Oh well... interesting memories... and they still play chess here.
I wasn't here at night last time... there was dancing in the streets when we got there.
And the ever-efficient metro system was still... ever efficient. Always nice to know that some things don't change.
...and on our final night of the trip, we just chilled out in our little hotel...
which was actually quite a big hotel... the Ritz-Carlton... pretty decent actually, especially after five months of slumming it in dodgy hotels and youth hostels where the warmth of my laptop's heatsink was the only heating available.
...and as the time for our flight approached, we just sat back and relaxed for a bit.