February 11, 2012

We slept for 9 1/2 hours and went for breakfast at the hotel restaurant before meeting the group in the lobby for a 4 1/2 hour bus tour of Santiago.  We drove to the city center where we got off the bus at the Presidential Palace and walked to the park with statues of past Chilean presidents.

Presidential Palace

statue of former President Salvador Allende

 Then the group walked 2 short blocks and 3 long blocks to the Plaza de Armas, the original city square. Here the Cathedral of Santiago is located in a 19th century building. There are not many older buildings, due to earthquakes, most of the buildings are 20th and 21st century structures.  There is lots of building construction in this city of over 6 million with the average age in the early 30s.

Cathedral exterior

Plaza de Armas

Cathedral interior

building on the Plaza de Armas

 Next we drove to take a tram ride to the top of a hill to see a large statue of the Virgin Mary and a hillside amphitheater with great views of the city.

Claire with the statue of the Virgin Mary in the background

View of the city from the statue

Next, we drove to an artisan market where there were local handicrafts. Then we drove back to the hotel to end the tour. We went to the room to get our sunscreen and hats and headed out for a 3 1/2 hours walk around several residential districts of apartment buildings on shady streets. today's high was 32 C and there was a light breeze.  We relaxed for an hour before walking 5 minutes to a nearby restaurant. We had a nice dinner and returned to make the blog entry.  (We used the stairs up and down from the 12th floor 5 or 6 times today)  We head for the ship on Sunday and blogs will not be posted every day.