Santiago, Chile (part one)

Our next adventure took us a few countries to the west to Chile! After a few days there, none of us wanted to leave!

Our kids are such amazing travelers!

Santiago, the capital of Chile is a beautiful city located in a valley between the Coastal Mountain Range and the Andes Mountain Range. The four hour flight from São Paulo took us over the Andes mountains in which we were instructed to put on our seat belts and move our seats and tray tables to upright positions due to turbulence experienced when crossing these mountains. We eagerly awaited our first glimpse of the Andes Mountains.

We have flown over mountains before, but none as beautiful as these!

There are many tunnels inside Santiago that are extremely long and very polluted. Alden's asthma cough started so we began doing Albuterol treatments consistently to prevent any issues. Checking into our hotel, the Santiago Marriott, we were pleasantly surprised by the room and the view!

The room was a family business room. It included two rooms. The main room had a bed, couch and TV, The second room was gaming room with a pull-out couch. The boys really, REALLY enjoyed the bean bags!

Our hotel gave us a beautiful view of the Andes Mountains. 

Landing around 4 in the afternoon, we were all a bit hungry. We went for a walk and discovered an outdoor mall just down the block from our hotel. At this point, we realized that Santiago is very "Americanized".  Chili's, P. F. Changs, CAT, Louis Vuitton, Mont Blanc, etc., were all available in the mall. 

The mall was completely decorate for Christmas and the boys were very excited!

Sunset over Santiago. 

Chile is the longest country in the world, crossed on the eastern side entirely by Andes mountains. There are 18 million people that live in this country with 7-8 million people living in Santiago. The country is divided into 16 regions with Santiago as the capital. Santiago is divided into 32 districts. Each district has it's own mayor, security system, etc.

The metropolitan area is very dry which is why most trees are imported and needed to be watered properly. Looking closely at the mountains you can see how dry it actually is and how many plants they import. Everywhere we went, grass, plants, and trees were being watered.

On the western side of the country are the Coastal mountains and they are much lower and full of indigenous vegetation. The Espino, an indigenous tree, is used to make charcoal. These trees are protected by law, but people will cheat the system and cut the tree limbs so it will dry out. They will wait for the tree to die after and then they will take it. Because, according to law, any dead tree is up for grabs.

Part two of our Chile trip takes us to coastal cities of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar!