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16th January 2007 - Day 291
We now had to start the 16th January over again - weird!! Set up camp at a really hip hostel ´Bellavista´in Barrio Bellavista. Had a little recovery nap and headed off from some Chilean food. The suburb we were staying in was really nice, lots of little cafe-bars with a really relaxed atmosphere.
17th January 2007 - Day 292
Spent the day strolling around Santiago city centre, visited Cathedral Metropolitana which had lots of beautiful stained glass windows and statues. Decided to visit the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, this place was amazing, it had lots of displays of pre-Columbian pottery, sculptures, carvings, weavings and huge selections of hats in all different shapes and sizes. It was really suprising how intricately sculpted the pottery and carvings were and reading about the processes for creating some of the figures. (i.e. some of the figures were carved in wax initially then the clay was added aound it to create a mould and put in a stone fire where the wax would melt leaving only the pottery mould, melted gold could be added to the mould and baked once again, creating the intricate figure - really cool!!) Spent the rest of the day exploring more of Santiago´s city centre. The city itself was quite European, headed to the Terraza Neptuno a small hill housing a Hotel, overlooking the city, we walked up the curved steps to the top to catch a sight of the city. Spent the rest of the day chilling under a tree in one of the many green park areas around the Terraza Neptuno.
18th January 2007 - Day 293
Set off to catch the Funicula to the top of Cerro San Cristobal summit 870m above Santiago´s city. Climbed to the top of the hill to view the Virgin Mary which stands at the highest point overlooking the city. Then caught the 2000m long cable car across to Av Pedro de Valdivia Norte, the views were pretty spectacular. In the evening ventured to a local kebab house for a meal which was pretty disgusting. The meat i had looked like it´d been chewed before it got served to me. - Yuck!!! Still hungry headed to Cafe de la Artes in Bellavista square and had very good tapas whilst listening to a local singing and playing a guitar. This was cut short by a power cut - but a really nice evening all in all, apart from the kebab - (*note to Paul not to eat in a place where we are the only customers!)
19th January 2007 - Day 294
Travelled in a very comfortable air-conditioned bus to Chillan. Stayed at a lovely Residential house for as little as 5 British pounds each including breakfast. This town was very quiet not very touristy (i think we may have been the only tourists) it has an unusual shaped church and a small crafts market ´Feria de Chillan´ in the central plaza, nice place to stay for 1-2 days.
20th January 2007 - Day 295
Headed off on a short bus ride to Chillan Viejo (the old city) which is the original town of Chillan before it was destroyed by sieges and earthquakes. It was also the birth place of Bernardo O´Higgins; O´Higgins was appointed the supreme director of the Chilean republic and was in politics for 5 years after Chiles independence from Spain. He introduced political, social, religious and educational reforms. In the town there is an impressive 60m long mosaic wall illustrating scenes from his life. (In all of the towns-cities we have visited there has been a main street named O´Higgins.) Dined on a lunch of Baros Luco and Lomo a lo pobre. (Beef and cheese sandwich and beef, eggs and chips - yum!!)
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