View from the Cerro Santa Lucia | GPS Map

After flying in to Santiago airport, I spent a couple of days in the city collecting some in-country travel information (the Turistel road guide was indispensible for driving) and other useful items (a SIM card for my cell phone that gave me a Chilean number). I stayed at the Hotel Foresta in Santiago, which faces the Cerro Santa Lucia, a park built on a steep hill capped with a tower providing magnificent views of the city and surrounding landscape. While there are higher scenic viewpoints around the city, I found this one to be the most dramatic because it sits amidst office buildings in the city center while still affording a view of the Andes mountains looming in the background, a reminder of the vast, harsh landscape beyond.

Santiago Fish Market

Sitting room in my $35-dollar-a-night suite