Street Art

Scattered throughout Santiago and Valparaiso y Vina del Mar is street art, or what gringos call graffiti. Some are very simple such as an ugly tag or just a doodle, or on the entirely opposite end of the spectrum and quite beautiful. Obtaining a permit is apparently quite easy, since it is literally everywhere and I believe accepted as part of the community. Here is some of my favorites... cheers

Famous poet Pablo Neruda

Creeeeepy

Dancing is free.

Headed up north through the Chilean desert!!!

Valparaiso Calves

Bussed in from Santiago early Saturday morning, it was nice to escape the smog, but when we arrived we arrived we encountered a different type of pollutant... tear gas. As it turns out there was a bit of a protest in Valpo that day. Approximately 30,000 people came to protest the construction of a dam in Southern Chile, and the scarring of the pristine landscape with thousands of miles of power stations and cable.

Luckily we arrived after the rowdy crowds had been dispersed and it was only peaceful protests, and lots of Carabineros, the Chilean police force roaming around.

They look very paramilitary, they were on horses, tanks, busses straight out of mad max, with shields, batons, and dogs.

Later that night we talked with one and he was friendly.

Anyways enough with the exciting stuff, that was really not exciting at all, no need to worry mum.

Valparaiso is a beautiful city on a hill sloping in the Pacific Ocean. Walking around the city was quite tiresome though... hills hills and more hills. Walking around for hours enjoying the beautiful weather. Here´s a video I had seen in the past and I think it does a pretty good job illustrating how large Valpo is...

VCA 2010 RACE RUN from changoman on Vimeo.

Nearly 4 minutes of riding downhill

View from the hostel breakfast table.

Maybe 10% of Valpo

Greasy tourist!

Viña del Mar a nearby beach resort town the next day!!!

One of my Finnish friends.

I know awful picture, but cool lil sand creature.

a bit of bouldering on the beach

Enormous trunk right?!?!

Well i can´t sit around and blog all day, I gotta go out explore, take photos, eat, drink and make memories. But alas now is time for a siesta.

Adios Amigos

Tourista!

Hola!

So Thursday through Saturday I did much of the tourist thing.

Much like these fellow travelers.

After spending a few days of exploring the city on my own I decided to take a walking tour, filled with much of the sites and history of Santiago. Pictured above is San Cristobal Hill.

There´s two ways to reach the top of the hill.... walk or take this daunting looking lift. My laziness chose the latter.

There´s infinite potential views from this high vantage point overlooking the Bellavista neighborhood and downtown areas. However due to the lack of rain in the past few days and the presence of the Andes mountains the smog caused by vehicles and industry are stuck hovering above the city....

Not bad here however the architecture isn´t anything to write home about...

Various nitrogen oxides react with sunlight and ozone forming this unsightly/unhealthy pollutant effect, I´m told with the smog isn´t bad you can see the Andes.

On top of San Cristobal Hill stands the Virgin mary, nice enough....

Until you see the giant radio tower behind it... bleh

Walking around Santiago at first did not seem to be all the interesting, it is a pretty modern city. But after seeing the walking tour

Perdro de Valdivia founded Chile, here he is riding on his mount. Apparently the indigenous people thought he was a god because they had never seen a man on a horse before. funny how that works out... more about him here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_de_Valdivia

Cathedral of Santiago, beautiful

Santiago stock market, nicknamed little New York.

Gift from Germany for 100 years of Chilean independence from Spain.

A bit out of place... like something out of Blade Runner

of course...

even worse....

Next up Street art and Valporasio and Viña del mar. Cheers

Solo se viva un vez

I´ve got a bit of a creative block right now, maybe it´s due to the lack of food and drink in my belly.... Perhaps...

A beautiful Santiago day spent with rooftop friends and wine

French Guinean, a Swede, a Frenchmen, and a brit

Steak eggs and papas fritas

It´s a bit messy but sooo good... It´s been a staple of trip so far

They say walking around in this smog is like smoking 3 cigarettes each day... And now winter is here and the thermocline in the atmosphere is lowered and the smog is only going to get worse... well until it rains

Well that´s all for now, tomorrow headed to the coastal town of Valparisio for a couple nights and back to Santiago. Off to watch a soccer match.