Santiago Chile

Welcome back to #TravelThursday. This month I’m virtually visiting 5 continents in 5 weeks. 3 weeks ago I wrote about Luxembourg in Europe. A couple of weeks ago it was Yunnan China in Asia. Last week it was down under to Perth Australia. This week it’s Santiago Chile in South America.

I’m fascinated and intrigued with South America. I’ve never been there before; although, I’ve come very close. In fact – some would say that I have been to South America – since I’ve been to Aruba and Curaçao twice, and Bonaire once. (The #ABCIslands are geographically part of the South American continental shelf.)

But I’d love to tour (mainland) South America. Many people say “oh you need to visit Copacabana in Rio de Janeiro”. Buenos Aires Argentina is another place I’d like to check out. But if given the choice I think I’d want to visit Santiago – the capital and largest city of Chile – “The City Of The Island Hills”.

Between 6 and 8-million residents call Santiago home. That’s almost half of Chile’s entire population. Chile is the 6TH most-populated country in South America behind Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, and Venezuela. Santiago is the 6TH most-populated metro area in South America behind São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, and Bogotá.

At TripAdvisor (my favorite travel web site – where I occasionally post reviews) – the # 1 thing to do in Santiago is to visit Cerro San Cristóbal – “this 860-meter hill in the center of Santiago features a zoo and wine museum at the midway point and a gondola ride to the top – where a Virgin Mary statue overlooks the city.” Sounds like a fun day atop Santiago de Chile !

Oh – and just a 3-hour drive northwestward from Santiago – I hear that the playas of Viña del Mar esta bonita. It may not be Copacabana, but it’s definitely “The Vineyard Of The Sea”, “The Garden City”, and “The Pearl Of The Pacific”.

Chile as a country is fascinating to me – even on a map, as it hugs much of the Pacific coast of South America from 17.5° south latitude in the tropics all the way down to 56.0° south latitude near the polar regions. That’s a distance of over 4,300 kilometers. It’s the closest country in the world to the Antarctica continent. It actually claims about 1,250,000 square kilometers of Antarctica.

From South America to North America. Next #TravelThursday I’m back home stateside in the great state of Texas. Let’s keep traveling together.