Santiago and it's accompanied "San Francisco of South America"

Iguazu treated me well to say the least. It's views kept me spellbound at every turn. As much as I fell in love with all the amazing Argentinians and their incredible country, I had to continue on to open up a few new doors in the near future. Two of my friends were making there way down to meet up with me in Lima, Peru. I had a flight from Santiago up to Lima so I decided to book it over to chile to get into contact with one of my brother's friends who is now living in the heart of Chile's capital city. 

I was introduced to Santiago with warm open arms. I met my brother and sister-in-law's friend, Amber in her downtown apartment which looked over the city below. Together with her and her roommate, we enjoyed some local eats and she gave me a full list of the top things I could do in Santiago during my time there. Amber had a fouton ready to go along with a cuddle buddy by the name of Darwin. Probably one of the coolest little dogs you'll ever find. 

Meet Darwin, my snuggle buddy. 

I had one week to see Santiago before my flight sent me on my way, so moved quickly. I made my way to all the top spots within the city. The hike up to La Virgen gave me an incredible panoramic view of the entire Santiago area which opened my eyes as to how big this city really was. Its avenidas and calles fingered their way east for miles up towards the impressive skyrocketing Andes, and west towards the coast as far as I could see. 

One of the apartment buildings taking in some nature

A "What is love" board posted up downtown. 

"La Virgen"

One pano of about HALF of Santiago... It was huge. 

The following day, I made my way to Cerro San Cristobal which was a tiny hill located in the middle of thriving city life. The entrance boasted a gorgeous mosaic fountain with Greek gods presenting themselves to the oncoming tourists. Perched atop the hill was an old castle like structure that gave impressive views of the surrounding apartments, office buildings and city life busting down below. 

Part of the fountains with some haughty Greek gods. 

Cerro San Cristobal surrounded by city life

 Along with adventuring through the subway systems and checking out the main governmental building downtown, one final sight that I needed to check off Amber's list was to explore Valparaiso, "The San Francisco of South America." This little port town took me in by the scruff of the neck and amused me at every turn I took. Everything from their hipster cafés to the finger-thin alley ways covered from head to toe with gorgeous works of graffiti and paintings. Whether it was a masterful piece of art or a graffiti rant about the highlights or problems of the world, every street, park, building and sidewalk seemed to have a story of its own that they wanted to share. 

A bit of a San Francisco feel to the town of Valparaiso

Some of the amazing artwork that was scattered throughout the city. This painting was made entirely of dots of different size and color. 

Some fog rolling into the port.