Life in Chile: Update 5

It's been over a month since I wrote my last update, so now feels like a good time to write a little bit about the things Claudio and I have been up to lately!

It's now the middle of winter here in Santiago, and the mountains surrounding the city are completely covered in snow, which looks incredible. Of course, everyone here wants to spend a day or weekend in the snow, and there have been big traffic jams up the mountain roads in recent weeks, so we haven't been yet. But we're hoping to go within the next couple of weeks to enjoy some time in the snowy scenery, and perhaps even try a bit of snowboarding!

In the meantime, we've been exploring some other places in and around the city. Here are a few highlights!

Cerro Calán

This park up in the hills of the Las Condes comuna is free to enter, and is our new favourite place for going running, though it's also good for dog walking and walking in general. It has a 2 kilometre circuit with amazing views of the mountains and the city, which make the workout much more entertaining!

Plaza Tailandia

We recently visited Plaza Tailandia for the first time. It's a little garden located in Parque Araucano and designed in a Thai style, with a pagoda and statues of elephants. Although it was a lot smaller than we were expecting, it was still a pretty place to look around.

Los Trapenses

One rainy weekend, we went for a coffee in the Los Trapenses neighbourhood of Lo Barnechea comuna. Its's a really attractive place with great views of the mountains.

Chicureo

We recently came back to Laguna Piedra Roja in the town of Chicureo, a short distance away from Santiago, over two years since our last visit in March 2020. It was nice to have a coffee and a walk around the lagoon, and also interesting to see how different it looks in winter compared to in summer.

A Little Bit of Snow!

On Saturday we went looking for some snow on the road that goes between Santiago and Chicureo, because Claudio had seen some videos on Instagram of that particular area covered in snow. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, there was more mud than snow! But at least we had some great views from up there.

El Mundo de Dalí

Yesterday we were back at our favourite cat café, El Mundo de Dalí. As always, the food was delicious and the cats were adorable! One cute little kitty sat on my lap for a little bit, and then on Claudio's lap for the rest of our visit!

Parque Bicentenario

After our trip to the cat café, we went to a place neither of us had been before: Bosque Santiago. This was a place that really surprised both of us, and I'll actually be writing an entire post about it, because we were so impressed by it.

Then we finished off our weekend with a little walk through Parque Bicentenario, which is one of our favourite parks in the city. It's always nice to see the flamingos and swans there, as well as some amazing views of the city and the mountains.

In other news, I'm happy to say that I've booked tickets to go back to the UK next month! Unfortunately, Claudio can't come with me because of his work, but it will still be great to spend a few weeks seeing family and friends. And hopefully I'll also do a bit of travelling while I'm there!

A Few Highlights From Chile

So I found out that trying to start a new job abroad is quite complicated! The process of getting a visa for my job in Chile has turned out to be much longer and more complex than I imagined it would be. When I booked my flight to Santiago, my plan was to stay out there long-term, but unfortunately it was necessary for me to fly back to the UK to sort out the visa. Obviously that wasn't great for either my bank balance or the environment. Now I'm hoping I can get things sorted so I can go back and start my job as soon as possible, but it's a little unclear what's going to happen over the coming weeks and months, due to the coronavirus situation causing lots of flights to be cancelled.

Although I only had a very short amount of time in Chile, it was so nice to be there with my boyfriend again. We visited lots of places around Región Metropolitana and also managed to fit in a trip to a few places along the coast (I'll be writing about that next). I was lucky to find a great value place to stay with amazing views over the city and a really nice swimming pool.

One day, we took a trip to Chicureo, a town to the north of Santiago. Here you can find Laguna Piedra Roja, an artificial lagoon next to a shopping mall. It's a very upmarket area and looks more like the United States than Latin America. Unfortunately, swimming isn't allowed in the lagoon, but it's a really scenic place.

We stayed in the Ñuñoa commune of Santiago, a part of the city I'd never been to before, but which I liked a lot. One of the most interesting things to see there is Santiago Central Mosque. It really stands out from the other buildings in the area.

Another place I'd never visited before was Centro Cultural La Moneda, a museum inside La Moneda palace. It has many art exhibitions and shops selling interesting books and food. When we were there, an event was taking place to celebrate relations between Chile and Guatemala. There were these colourful carpets on the floor that were actually made out of sand!

On our way back to the car after visiting La Moneda, we passed through Barrio Concha y Toro, a very pretty and photogenic part of the city.

On my last day, we went to El Mundo de Dalí, Santiago's cat café! It's located in Barrio Italia, which is a great area for shops and restaurants. This was definitely one of my favourite parts of my time in Chile. The café has great vegan food and drinks, and the cats were so lovely!

Overall, I had a fantastic six days spending time with my boyfriend and his family and friends. Next I'll be blogging about our trip to Viña del Mar, Reñaca and Concón!