Stunning Santiago
I really enjoyed getting to sleep in a little more than normal this morning before heading down for a great breakfast at Casa Fusion. Thank you so much to the man who gave me the really cute Casa Fusion postcards featuring the famous La Paz, Bolivia Mi Teleférico cable car system - I love them! After saying goodbye to the super sweet Ximena I headed by cab to the airport. The flight was fine until I landed and realized $100 had been stolen out of my bag. I normally always keep my carry-on sized rolling suitcase with me, but I flew LATAM and they made me check it. LATAM was super unhelpful and had horrible customer service. I’ve obviously flown a ton over the last few weeks but has been the only time so far that I have felt like an airline did not care about its customers.
All complaining aside, the flight itself was amazing. The plane flew over the Salt Flats in Bolivia as well as the Andes mountains. Everyone in the plane was glued to their windows for the entire flight. The French girl next to me even jokingly apologized for leaning over me to take so many pictures - I would have done the same if I hadn’t luckily had the window seat! It was truly incredible, and one of the only flights I have just been truly fixated by what I am flying over. I have never seen anything like the Salt Flats from the air before, and they were so cool that they are now at the top of my list to go back and see in person.
I arrived in Santiago, Chile mid-afternoon and took a shared shuttle (that was significantly cheaper than a taxi) straight to my hotel. You can find these shuttles easily in the arrivals terminal. I arrived at my hotel, CasaSur Charming Hotel, after about an hour. I was so excited for this hotel stay, and even more excited when CasaSur not only met but exceeded my expectations for an awesome hotel. I cannot thank them enough for sponsoring this night of my trip!
From my first moment at the hotel, I was greeted as an old friend. Sarah kindly helped tell me all about Santiago before showing me to my amazing room. It was so incredibly comfortable, modern, and yet also simplistic at the same time. The hotel is in a really cute neighborhood with restaurants all around. After getting settled in and learning more about the area I headed to Sky Costanera, which is the tallest building in Latin America.
I arrived about when the sun was setting, which was honestly perfect. I was able to look out at the amazing view and see both day-time, and then in a matter of minutes night time, Santiago. The view was incredible. Santiago is a major, constantly bustling city and there was no better place to see this than from Sky Costanera. You could also see the Andes Mountains that surround Santiago. The mountains are so cool to see from the city, but this view was really the best.
After I finished walking around Sky Costanera I a quick walk to the mall located at the bottom of the building. In case anyone was wondering, Chilean malls are just like American malls if not nicer! It was huge and really modern. After a few minutes, I headed out to catch an Uber which I found to be relatively inexpensive in Santiago. I headed to Patio Bellavista, which is an amazing area for food in Santiago. It took about an hour to go what should have taken ten minutes thanks to traffic, but it was worth the wait. The Patio Bellavista area was so cool and modern, and there were so many restaurants to choose from! I had Chilean food for dinner with a really interesting rolled ice cream for dessert. It was a tasty evening!
After I finished I walked through the area for a bit and then took an Uber back to CasaSur Charming Hotel. I fell asleep quickly after another exhausting but amazing day. My biggest disappointment in Chile was the lack of time that I was able to spend there. Of all of the major cities that I have been to, I think that Santiago is firmly at the top of where I would like to visit again. There was so much that I wish I could have seen and done, and so much to explore in Chile as a whole. I felt incredibly safe throughout my stay. There were countless people out and about at all hours of the day and it honestly felt like I was in New York at times. I loved everything that I saw of Santiago, but I really cannot wait to go back and see a lot more. Thank you, Santiago, for a great day!
27 countries down, 169 to go.
To learn more about CasaSur Charming Hotel click here.