Chile Road Trip : Santiago

Woke up and went for a coffee nearby. People watching is always fun. Today is a normal day in Santiago, so by 8am The hustle and bustle of the city and all the people walking to work has begun. After coffee, we had a quick breakfast in our room and then headed off again to walk aroind a little. We ended up in the gigantic Constantera Mall, 6 levels in all. The mall is located right next to Constantera Tower, which is the really tall building you can see in some of the pictures. The tower is the largest building in South America, and some Chilean advertising blends it with the eiffel tower, tower of london and empire state building. The mall itself was a completely Americanized experience. Most of the shops looked like American chains and the prices were actually quite a but higher than what we can find in Canada.

After the mall, we caught a cab out to the motorcycle shop where we had purchased our bikes last year. In the cab I pulled one of my biggest bone headed moments, I had taken my cell phone out to show the cabbie the address and I must not have put it in my pocket well afterwards and it must have fallen out in the cab. Worst part is, I know things are constantly falling out of my shorts pockets when sitting, so I should have known better. The cabbie was going to return in 30 minutes to give us a return ride, but he never showed back up and my phone was lost. Perhaps he found it and decided it was too much of a score to bother to return, but I prefer to think that it fell under the seat and he never saw it, then just got busy with other fares. Regardless, it was of my own doing.

Inside the motorcycle shop, I found out that Juan, the man who had helped us before, was promoted and is now running one of the company's other stores. Apparently though, the new guy I was talking to had heard all about the three of us from last year, buying the little bikes and touring on them. He even called over two of his co-workers to let them know I was one of those gringos! Even in Chile, they thought it was a little crazy. I also got a chance to see the new Honda CB1 Tuff. This is a small 125cc enduro but built with a decent frame to it. Looks much like what we had, but a slightly smaller motor with better offroad and gravel capabilities. The bike sells for around $1600 so it is pretty good value for the money. If I return for a northbound trio, which I hope to do, this would be the bike.

A restaurant on the sidewalk

Streetside mini mart

After the bike shop, we caught a colectivo taxi to the nearest metro and then the subway back to our area. We walked around a few more shops and took some pictures before going to Schopdog for dinner. Not the greatest of food, but cheap and fast. After dinner, a little more walking around before heading towards our hotel. Just before retiring to our room for the evening we stopped for Ice Cream. Chile loves ice cream. Almost all of the shops make their own and they have probably 100 flavours, including ones like "lemon merangue pie" and "black forrest cake".

Off to the room for sleep. In the morning, we checkout of Santiago and pickup our rental car. Next stop, Valparaiso.