Santiago de Chile

We enjoyed wonderful days in Santiago together with Antonia and Carlos who showed us the city from the perspective of locals. We met Antonia and Carlos and their friends for the first time in Brazil on the way to Ilha Grande. Since we already knew then that we would be visiting Santiago, we exchanged phone numbers and contacted them before arriving in Santiago.

They picked us up at our apartment and took us to a nice local restaurant with hundreds of different wines from Chile and the national drink, pisco sour, which we enjoyed during a cozy evening. 😀

The day after, we were invited to Antonia's home for lunch. She cooked a tasty quiche while Carlos served a fantastic pisco sour 😜🥂 In the afternoon, we visited Cerro San Cristóbal together, which has an amazing view over the city. From there, we walked to visit one of the biggest jazz festivals in South America. Cristiãn Cuturrufo Quinteto was playing, a really crazy band... Feeling a bit hungry, we went to a restaurant to get a midnight snack and had funny conversations about cultural differences and similarities between Chile and Switzerland. It's unbelievable, but we had one more highlight that night: we went to Antonia and Carlos' secret viewpoint with wine and beer and enjoyed the panoramic view of Santiago 😀

Daniela and I are very thankful for everything you prepared and organized, it was absolutely great! Unforgettable days we could spend with you 💛

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Before I tell you about the wonderful days in Santiago, I need to quickly tell you about our journey from Mendoza to Chile... We took the overnight bus. It left on time and at around 2:30 in the morning, we were at the Chilean border at 3,200 m above sea level. There was so much paperwork, checkpoints, and customs inspections at the border that it just didn't move forward. After a very long wait, we finally got the passport stamps and then there was a complete baggage check. Something around 7 in the morning, we could finally continue...

But then, we had such wonderful days. At the beginning of our trip to Brazil, we got to know Antonia and Carlos from Santiago. They suggested that when we arrive in their city, they could show us around a bit. We were spoiled beyond belief. They picked us up, took us around, cooked amazing food, and showed us beautiful places. It couldn't have been better.

What did we do? Together, we went up Cerro San Cristóbal, where we had an impressive view of the city. There are more than 8 million people living there.

Then, we went to a jazz festival in a park in the city with a view of the Costanera Center. It's just as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Cristiãn Cuturrufo's band was amazing on stage. We quickly realized that Cuturrufo approaches jazz a bit differently than in our latitudes. It was super exciting and we got a taste of festival vibes for this year 🎺🥁

Antonia and Carlos took us to their secret viewpoint to end the second day. From there, we had another beautiful view of the sparkling city. It was already the second night and it was time to rest... 😉😴

The hospitality was overwhelming! 😃

In addition, we explored the city center and visited two museums to escape the midday heat. One of the museums was about the dark times of the military regime in Chile with Pinochet. We had to swallow a few bitter pills there...

At the other museum, we visited Pablo Neruda's house, a well-known politician and poet. He built this house for his beloved, where they could secretly meet for six years. It's a true gem.