Stef and Matt

We left San Pedro de Atacama late on a Monday afternoon – we took another night bus that left around 5:30 (after a long delay) and drove into the night. Our bus ride was 20 hours to Santiago, so we arrived in the early afternoon to the bus station. We got to our hostel – La Casa Roja, highly recommended (fun, safe, great staff, good food) quickly, but found out that they were really busy for the 5 days or so that we would be there. So, we made reservations for the 5 nights (including Halloween), and developed a routine that we followed every day while we were there:

1. Wake up in the morning
2. Shower, Get dressed
3. Order breakfast, Wait for breakfast, Eat breakfast
4. Pack our bags
5. Check out of the hostel
6. Leave our bags in the luggage storage room
7. Walk around Santiago, check out sites, do a short day trip
8. Return to the hostel
9. Check in to our new room, pay, and pick up the room key
   • we stayed in 5 different rooms in the 5 consecutive nights we were there!
10. Collect our bags from the luggage storage room
11. Go to our new room and drop off our bags
12. Go to dinner
13. Return to sleep

During that period of time, we became very good friends with the reception staff, as we spent an hour or more every day at the front desk, checking in, checking out, and chatting. Keep in mind, when you’re traveling, you want to minimize steps 4,5,6,8,9,10, and 11. We got to do them every day, so we were a little more limited in what we saw in Santiago. We did, however:

• Eat at the BEST steakhouse we’ve ever been to, Las Vacas Gordas
• See the public library
• Climb the Monastery and Military hill



• Shop at a few interesting stores (and I got a plug converter! Ours was lost 4 months before, in Costa Rica)



• Go into the bus stations – all three of them (Local, Inter-provincial, and International – Argentina and Bolivia)
• Visit Vina del Mar – a little ocean/beach vacation town where we:
  • Had our first completo – a hot dog with ketchup, mayonnaise, and guacamole (BTW – you can skip it, not really worth it other than for the novelty factor)
  • Visited the Easter Island Museum – saw a great explanation of some of the archaeological sites



• See Valpairiso, about an hour outside of Santiago, where we:
  • Walked around the town
  • Checked out the port, with all of its crazy taxi-boats



• Toured one of Pablo Neruda’s houses (the one in Isla Negra), with:
  • All of the ship’s mastheads
  • The cigar collection
  • Other collections
  • The beautiful view of the sea

I’ve given you a preview of some of the photos here; below are links to a few of the photo sets that didn’t get full coverage. Check them out!

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