Hop on Hop off

We slept fantastically and for a long time, a long time for me, until 7:15 a.m. :-).

After a hearty breakfast we walked to the first stop of the hop on hop off bus (from “Turistica”). As I type this passage I have to laugh. When we sat down on the upper deck and the bus had barely driven 10 meters, Daniela said to me "that's cold"!!!! Guys, really, it was wonderfully warm, I enjoyed it so much, but Daniela had goosebumps and icy hands until our first stop in a tour. I have to laugh....:-)

Well, on the first hop off at the Plaza de Armas we stood in the sun for what felt like half an hour. After Daniela had reached her operating temperature, we looked at all the sights. We particularly liked the Cathedral of Santiago. It is very pompous, but not kitschy.

Afterwards we went to a market and bought some fruit there. For example, there was 1 kilo of grapes for 1 euro or 1 kilo of bananas for 1.50 euros. I found the prices to be very reasonable.

We actually ran the next few stops from HoHo. That was very pleasant. The many high-rise buildings provided a lot of shade, so I was still in a good mood until then ;-). We walked to the Presidential Palace and to Santa Lucia, a beautiful complex with a great park. From the top you had a world-class view of Santiago again.

When we got back downstairs, I wanted to get on the HoHo bus because it was now 2 p.m. and it was getting hotter. But it wasn't that easy to find the (unmarked) stop... the street was clear and when I saw the correct "house number" on a lamp post, it was clear to me: we're in the right place waiting here at the AdW; -) Of course not! And if a nice Chilean hadn't helped us, we might still be standing there.

We sat up on the deck again and let ourselves be chauffeured around the city for a while.

The districts are very different. But what there were again and again were parks where people lay down or children had fun in playgrounds. One district seemed to me like the Financial District in Manhattan, then another like Quito, it was quite impressive. I liked the neighborhoods with the old bars and wall stickers best. Oh, when we sat down on the upper deck the temperature was 32.3 degrees. When we got off the bus at our next stop, the temperature was a whopping 35.9 degrees :-(). We got off at the large Bicentenario Park. There was a large restaurant there with a huge outdoor terrace. We had a delicious lunch here.

After eating we strolled through the entire park. It was fantastic, there were always small areas of water. Koi, swans and ducks swam in these. People were running around with their dogs and children on the huge lawns. The view of the Andes mountain range, which kept appearing in the background, was fantastic. You are standing in a meadow, next to you there are palm trees, grasses, blooming pink oleanders and the Andes appear gigantic far behind. What a sight.

We also had a lot of fun in a small swing park. Okay, I had fun, Daniela didn't want to because otherwise the salmon would have come up ;-)! But one thing bothered us in the park. That was really horrible, there was a guy running behind us for probably 20 minutes who kept screaming "ijeelaaadöööö"... over and over again and at an unpleasant volume. We assumed he meant "Helado" and wanted to sell ice cream. If we stopped, he stopped too. At some point Daniela whispered: "If he shouts that again, he'll get hit with the water bottle" (Daniela's note: a small plastic water bottle). I just said, "I feel sorry for him because no one wants to buy his Helado" ;-). At some point we got rid of him and when we said goodbye, a big dog chased him and barked at him. He probably found him annoying too :-)!

Totally satisfied, the two of us walked the last 3.6 kilometers to our hotel. Here we are cooling off in and around the pool and enjoying the wonderful evening. All around us the parrots fly over the roofs and rest in the trees.

Kind regards from us :-)!