Smog City

How weird is to sit on the plane and be able to see both sides of a country so clearly. "On your left you can see the mighty Andes and on your right the Pacific ocean crashing into the rocky desert". That was our journey from Antofagasta to Santiago - the Smog City! We heard the stories but you really can´t believe it until you see it or as the case might be not see it. Santiago is a beautifuly city - kinda European in feel with coffee shops lining the cobbled streets, big modern buildings, banks and an improbable number of chemists (there is a theme developing here - banks and chemists everywhere, any city, any place, any time). There are few cute areas, like barrio Brasil - popular with students (dark doggy bars with punk music) and where we stayed, the pretty area of barrio Paris-Londres (an area simply made up of two blocks and two cobbled streets crossing each other).

On our first night in Santiago we went to a bar in barrio Brasil where we ended up chatting with the only two people there who, fortunately for us, spoke very good english. There was drinking, dancing on tables and much fun had. The next day we met up with them again and they showed us around the town while we compared hangovers. One thing we have to say about the smog is that it produces absolutely amasing sunsets. Well, you can´t actually see the sun setting but the colours it makes are kinda trippy.

There is one other great area called barrio Bellavista covered with trendy bars and clubs situated in multicoloured little buildings. Right next to it is Cerro San Cristobal where you can take steep journey on the funicular railway to the top from where 15ft Virgin Mary benevolently looks over the city. On our way there we went through what seemed to be a student protest. We didn´t click until we saw all the people carrying gas masks surrounded by tv crews and riot police. That is when we started to feel what must have been the remains of tear gas as our eyes started to water and our noses started to burn. It wasn´t that dangerous though, or so the policeman assured us. All of this before 11 o´clock in the morning, and we thought students are lazy.