Exploring Santiago Again

I got back from my recent travels on Thursday evening and I have a lot to write about it all! Before blogging here, I wanted to get the final assignment of my TEFl course submitted, which I managed to do yesterday. Now I'm catching up on some extra reading from the course while waiting to find out if I've passed.

It was a very busy couple of weeks spent in three different countries - four if you include a flight transfer in Italy! My week in Chile turned out to be a lot more adventurous than I was expecting, as my boyfriend and I ended up taking a spontaneous trip to the northern region of Coquimbo, in addition to seeing lots of places in Santiago and the Metropolitan Region.

This post will focus on the time I spent in Santiago. I was slightly worried about what the situation would be like there because of the current protests, but I was never in any danger. In general, life is going on as normal, but some places like supermarkets are closing early, and it's advisable to avoid certain areas of the city after dark. I saw and heard some protests going on both in Santiago and La Serena, which all seemed to be peaceful and non-violent. It's clear that changes need to be made to deal with the problem of inequality in Chile, and I hope that the protesters' wishes will be realised.

The time I spent in Santiago with my boyfriend and his family was really lovely, and I hope to return very soon. Even though I lived in the city for four and a half months last year, I still discovered some amazing places there that I'd never visited before.

On the day I arrived, my boyfriend and I went to Parque Metropolitano. It's best known for Cerro San Cristóbal, where you can see the statue of the Virgin Mary. However, there are many more things to see in the park. This time we went to the Japanese garden, a place I'd wanted to go to for a long time but had never got round to visiting. It's really pretty and tranquil with amazing views over the city.

Later that day, we went to Parque Bicentenario. We had been there before on a wintry evening in June 2018, so it was nice to see what it was like in daylight!

A new place I discovered on this trip to Chile was Parque Quinta Normal. It's a huge park with a lake and several museums.

One day we went to the train museum, where you can see lots of old trains and even go inside a few of them.

Afterwards, we went to the science museum, which was much more exciting than either of us expected. We only had half an hour there before the museum closed for the day, so we came back again on my last day!

During my week in Chile, we also went to Pueblito Los Domínicos in the east of Santiago. I'll be writing about that in my next post...