Santiago Day Tour

Yesterday on the drive from the airport we decided to hire the travel agency which picked us up to give us a 4 hour tour of Santiago today. James, our guide, arrived at 9:30.  Our first stop was on top of St.Christopher Hill where we had an expansive view of the city. The smog here is really bad due to forest fires last week but I'm sure the smog is bad anyway. If we had time we could have ridden the funacular up. 

We drove thru several neighborhoods near the hotel and up in the foothills of the Andes Mtns.  We also looked in two churches and walked downtown in the London/Paris District and the Neuve York ( New York) pedestrian area. One stop was at the Jockey Club. Besides horse racing Santiagans like tennis and soccer. 

Following our seafood lunch where we once again forgot the portions are gigantic and couldn't begin to finish our meals, we walked back to the hotel, napped. Afterwards we joined the group for a hike up St Lucia hill where an 18th century fortress had once stood guard over the area. The rock steps to the pinnicle were steep and worn smooth making the climb treacherous. We then wandered around the district and found our way to a neat wine bar John and I had discovered earlier. We had a waiter/ sommelier who spoke fluent English making our evening of wine and tapas enjoyable. All the wine we tasted were from Chile. 

The end to a great day was being able to use the internet to video chat with all our grandkids.