January 2023

In January 2023 we travelled with our humans to South America. The primary objective was to explore Chile, however, we started out with a couple of days in Buenos Aires in Argentina, before flying to Santiago, the capital of Chile.

Click each photo to enlarge

We left the Jorge Newbury Int. airport on a LATAM flight bound for Santiago in Chile. The big adventure was awaiting, wow! On the way we passed over the Andes Mountain range. The tallest peak at this spot, Aconcagua, reached almost 7,000 meters, the tallest in the Americas, both north and south.

Santiago, Chile, January 2023

We were going to stay a couple of days at the Double Tree by Hilton near the Santiago city centre. It would give us a chance to see this major south American city.

We had a great room at the Double Tree. Chong was looking out the window.
"The building across has lots of windows and it seems to work as a mirror," Chong pondered. "That means that the building we can see in the mirror is actually our hotel..."
"That's right," McBear said. "If you raise your hand, we should be able to see you in the mirror."
"I can't see a thing. McBear, maybe if you start hopping and dancing like mad," Chong proposed, "or even better if you sprint from side to side..."
"I beg your pardon!"

We took the metro to down town Santiago to Plaza de Armas. Here we are at Santiago's cathedral. We were warned against pick pockets, so we didn't stay too long.

Santiago, Chile, January 2023

We took the cable car to the top of the Cristobal hill. You get some fantastic views of the city. Santiago is a huge city with an estimated 6 or 7 million citizens.

In Santiago, we were going to join a tour group from Exodus Travel from Britain, so it became an international group. There were also a member from the United States and from Canada. The first stop was actually the top of Cristobal Hill. But instead of using the cable car like yesterday, we used the funicular, which is famous in Santiago.

The next day the group went to Valparaiso. Our first stop was the fish market at the harbour. Here, we watched sea lions and pelicans.

The sun came out and we walked among the famous, colourful houses in Valparaiso.

Here's another example of a colourful house.

Valparaiso is built on a steep hill side. To get around the city, in some cases we took the funicular.

Chile has a lot of minerals, including semi precious gems and stones like lapiz lazuli useful for making jewelry and decorations. The blueish sculptures with heads are a direct reference to the stone heads found at the Easter Island only.