Santiago and Environs

I was only in Santiago for a couple days, but I was told by the locals that that´s all you need to see the sights of the city. Pretty much as soon as I got off the plane a few days ago I started feeling not so great and yesterday the not so great feeling morphed into a fully formed illness. It´s not anything too exciting, no explosive diarrhea or anything, it´s just a headcold. I am pretty sure I got the cold because the air quality here sucks. But, I didn´t let that stop me. The only thing I had to skip was a gay night out with some locals which is a bummer, but I think I needed my 12 hours of sleep. Anyway, I saw Santiago! Here are the pics:

A sculpture garden:


I went on this long walk through a city park that was up on a hill. I was able to get a view of the city. What? You can´t really see it? Oh, that´s the smog that will clog your lungs and make you sick and snotty:


Here´s a fountain commemorating something (it was in Spanish):


And the capital:


So, that´s it for Santiago. I already left this morning on a tour, usually I wouldn´t splurge for something like that, but this one seemed pretty cool and I think I´ll get to see more of the country this way.

Our first stop was in Pomaire where the inhabitants are known for their pottery skills:


Next we stopped at Rapel Dam, but the pictures suck and a dam is a dam no matter what country. Our tour guide, Jorge, said Chile gets most of its energy through hydropower. Wow.

Now I´m in Pichilemu. It´s a touristy town on the coast. We´re staying at a cute hostel with an underwater theme, whoa...


We´ll be here for the night and then we´re off to Pucon tomorrow. Hopefully I´ll be over this cold by then.
-Katie