The trip to Chile - Santa Lucia hill

The Cerro Santa Lucia is a small hill in the Center of Santiago situated in between the Alameda del Libertador and Victoria Subercaseaux. There's a Metro station beside it named after it.
It has an altitude of 629m and 70m over street level, by the way, forget bout feet in Latin America, go metric or bust.

On one side of the Hill you´ll find Fuerte Hidalgo that dates from the 1920s and was used as a defensive point. On the other side, the terrain was used as a "cemetry for dissidents", those who did not follow the Catholic faith or were considered unworthy of burrial at hallowed grounds.
In propper time the remains burried in the hillside were transferred to the Santiago cemetery.

The Hill gives a nice view of downtown Santiago and is used by locals as a park for a Sunday stroll.

The trip to Chile - La Biblioteca Nacional

Chile´s National Library is surely a place worth visiting, located on the Libertador O´Higgins Ave. in Santiago, built between 1813 and 1825 in a French neoclassical style, it is currently open to the public and can be visited for free.

It hosts ample study areas with very nice desks and chairs and wi-fi access.

It has a wide array of reference material and has displayed some of south america´s oldest maps, besides holding most of the countries digital reference material.

The trip to Chile - El Museo Histórico Nacional de Santiago

The National history museum in Santiago is Located smack at the Plaza de Armas in Santiago. Housed at a well preserved historical building it can be missed due to all the other attractions around the Santiago´s main square.

Its a nice place to get acquainted with Chile's history but most of the texts at the exhibits are in Spanish, so do learn a bit of the language before going.

The trip to Chile - Eating at the Mercado Central

As I normally do when in seaside cities, I wanted to eat some fine seafood., and what better place to ask for directions to a good restaurant than the local fish market.
So off I went to ask a fish vendor at the Mercado Central, and was directed to a place called Marisol, located right inside the market, don´t ask exactly where, but its there.

Its a tiny joint but they serve glorious seafood dishes for very good prices. I had a seafood soup with beer

The trip to Chile: El Mercado central de Santiago

Right around the "Puente de Cal y Canto" subway station you´ll find the Mercado Central de Santiago, which operates as a fish market as well as tourist attraction with souvenir shops and Sea food restaurants.

the structure itself was probangland along with dozens of others found all over cities with Ports.

Inside you can indulge in buying over sized sea food and fish, that abound in the southern pacific, or eat it at the many small restos that are into every space available.

Or just take great shots of the fresh fish displayed for sale.

The trip to Chile - La piojera

Now, when in Santiago you must have good chilean wine, in all its versions. One of them is the drink called "Terremoto " or earthquake which consists of  a mix of white wine called pipeño(normally not the finest) pinepple icream, and pomegranate syrup, all combined in a 400ml cup.

A fine establishment to try it out is "La piojera" or the lice nest, which is located in Santiago across the Mercado Central close to the "Puente Cal y Canto" subway station

its a very popular eatery where you can have typical chilean food or just indulge in a Terremoto drink or its smaller version called "Replica"

The Trip to Chile - Moving around Santiago by subway

 

Santiago de Chile has a vast subway system called the Metro. Its safe and reasonably priced (around 1 buck a trip), not as cheap as Mexico city or Buenos Aires, and does not have the transfer system that allows you to continue by bus, but its clean and efficient.

The Trip to Chile - Moving around Santiago by bike

Santiago actually is a pretty bike friendly city, besides being a good place to buy one. Since I did so myself I biked around quite a bit, specially in the downtown area.

There are plenty of bike paths which take up a whole lane, and cross parks as well. But beware of asking directions, cuz most people in Santiago do´nt know or do´nt care, bring a map or check google.

The trip to chile - El Valle Nevado

The Valle Nevado is located 46 clics East of Santiago, obviously towards the Andes

It is a popular ski resort during winter time, and a very nice trekking and sightseeing destination during the summer. From there you can see the magnificent Andes mountains and watch the majestic Condor fly.

I went there by car from Santiago and the road was pristine, I do not know if there is any kind of public transport that can bring you there, but I certainly recommend going there for sunset and Condor pics.