Doug's Travel Blog

 I am so ready to move on, but I need to wait for my flight tomorrow night. So,I have all day today and tomorrow to continue my exploration of Santiago. My nose always does it's thing in the morning, but I suspect that I have a cold coming on. That is not surprising, the weather has been cool and I've been having a hard time staying warm. Rain is forcast for today and tomorrow, that is not going to help. Going out this morning, I take the subway planning to get off at Plaza de Armas, one of the major plazas of the city.  The Palacio de Moneda, Santiago Getting off the subway, I start retracing some of the steps from the walking tour I did earlier with a guide. I wanted to revisit some of the places including  the presidential palace (Palacio de la Moneda)to more fully take in and visualize events going back the coup of 1973.  I took my time there just sitting on a planter wall. Palacio de la Moneda translates to something like the Money Palace. This is because the pa...

 Just doing my regular routine, checking emails, playing a few games and checking social media, doing a few updates on the blog and having a cup of tea. Breakfast is set out, but the noted breakfast hours are from 9 to 10:30. Still 15 minutes early. The offerings are the same every day. A bread roll, cheese and ham sliced way thinner than I have even seen them,or ever should be, sliced and cantalope. Tea and instant coffee are also available. It doesn't matter to much how many people are staying here. The number of bread rolls change, but not so for the cheese, ham and cantalope. Being here, a bit further from the equator, there doesn't seem to be as big a selection of fruits and vegetables that are available in Oaxaca. I headed out late this morning and took the subway towards the Bellevista neighborhood. One of the things also at the station is the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago. A large park that includes adventure activities, the Santiago Zoo and a funicular (tram) up the...

 It is a Sunday, so I expect the city to pretty quiet today.  I really have nothing planned for the day and I'm OK with that. I will probably take the subway into the city center and hang around a park. A chill day in more ways than one. It has been cooler here during my second stay in Santiago and that will continue for the rest of my time here. I will fly to Buenos Aires on Tuesday. Buenos Aires won't be much warmer I am deep in the southern hemispere and it is now the fall season. I probably won't thaw out until I get to Brazil. Then, it may be too warm. I headed out this morning planning to board the subway to the Bellevista neighborhood that I hadn't visited yet. I got off the subway at a connection station. Looking at a map I saw there was a train museum. Looking at the pictures, it looked like they had many locomotives on display. I reversed course and headed there instead. It happened that it was in the park as the museums I had visited earlier.  The locomotives...

 I am awake, having some rooibos tea (I always travel with my own tea) and updating my blog. I have a couple options for today. First ride a bike aimlessly around the city. Later in the day, at 3 pm, they are having an activity at the wood museum I would like to go to. I also want to return to the Sanitario Cristo Pobre to get some better pictures. I past another park on my way  to the bike rack. You can click on any of the pictures to see a bigger one. I rented a bike early today and rode a little. My first stop was the Sanitario. I didn't get any better pictures from the outside, but I did get into the gate on the side of the Sanitario. It looks like there are 6 - 2 story apartments. I didn't interupt anyone to ask any more. From there I returned the bike to the rack and on my way into the park behind the Sanitario, I bought a torta. A sandwich on a roll. I think it was a chorizo type sausage, topped with my best guess was stew stomach. l didn't realize that when I bought...

 I had a good nights sleep. I am starting to reconsider my plans of visiting Mendoza and Cordaba.  This involves a lot of time on the bus, more short stays and also more expensive than just flying directly to Buenos Aires. After some thought. Before and after breakfast I cancelled my stays in Mendoza, Cordaba and Buenos Aires. I booked a flight to Buenos Aires and re-booked a longer stay there. Now I am ready for the today. First thing was to collect my clothes to take to the laundry. After dropping off my clothes, I came across this wonderful park. I first wanted to sit for awhile because there was a young man playing nice clarinet music.  Also, in the park, I noticed this dog house condo for street dogs. When the clarinetist finished, I moved across the street to enjoy a coffee and avocado toast at a street side cafe. From there I went to a woodworking museum. What a find! I thought it was just a collection of antique woodworking tools. Wow, was I wrong. Yes it has an i...

 It should be no surprise that I am more than ready to go back to Santiago. Valparaiso, has been even colder than Santiago and I can do without climbing hundreds of steps everyday. Because of the cold, I will also not be heading further south  to the Patagonia reqion of Chile and Argentina. It's too bad that today, what looks to be a warm, beautifully sunny day, was not yesterday. Yesterday morning I couldn't even see the ocean from my balcony. It stayed that way all day, cloudy and cool. I have not bought a bus ticket, but there are buses to Santiago probably every hour. So when I get there I will buy a ticket for the next bus out. I do have reservations for a stay in Santiago for a couple days. One thing I missed before was my visit to the Human Rights Museum. After Santiago, I plan to take a bus west to Mendoza, Argentina for a couple days. Then to Cordoba, also in Argentina, for a few days before going on to Buenos Aires . I am hoping to like Buenos Aires enough to stay l...

 Today the plan is to explore a bit more of Valparaiso. I left the hostel taking the 30 plus steps down and 70 plus steps up to get to the vinicular. On the way I took this picture of some of the neighboring buildings. I think this would make a great watercolor, chalk, acrylic or oil painting. Unfortunately, I am not a painter. I was wrong yesterday, the vinicular is 100 chilean peso each way. About $.10 usd each way. Really worth it. On the way back, the attendant invited me to go down one floor to look at the workings of the vinicular. It is actually set up as a mini museum. This particular vinicular dates back to 1911. Seeing the machinery, I still trust it. I decided to head to the shoreline and walk along the shore for awhile. I really can't get next to the ocean at this point. This portion of the coast is all part of the Chilean Navy yard. I'm not really seeing anything attractive about Valparaiso, so I continue my walk looking for something interesting. I'm finding t...