Friday, November 25, 2005
South America Trip - Day 38 - Santiago
We went to Parque Metropolitano (a hill in the middle of town) where there is a big statue of the Virgin Mary and a large municipal garden area including a zoo, swimming pool, botanical gardens, function centre and picnic areas. You get to the lookout via a funicular railway and can traverse along the gardens on gondolas. It was very pleasant riding on both and the views from the top where great. Santiago is a flat city with the Andes overlooking it on one side. It is amazing to see the sprawling city with mountains with snow on them in the background!
After a nice seafood lunch we went to some more gardens set amongst a castle style building which looked like it was used for functions etc. The Chileans seem to love anything European, in fact we haven´t seen many native Indian people at all. Every one looks Spanish. This is a contrast from Peru and Bolivia.
Most places we go in South America we´ve seen political rallies. This is because in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile there are elections coming up. We have learnt a little about the political situation in these areas. Bolivia has natural gas that Chile wants. At the moment Chile gets it´s natural gas from Argentina however Argentina will cut off this supply in two years. Bolivia would prefer to work with Peru to route the gas not Chile as Chile is very aggressive and took valuable land by the sea from Bolivia in the War of the Pacific in the late 1800´s. Chile still has it´s eye on the land rich in resources in both Peru and Bolivia and is building up it´s armed forces capability. The area in Bolivia with the gas is Santz Cruz. Here there are powerful people (I think from Croatia and somewhere else) who want to make Santa Cruz independent from Bolivia. I can understand why Bush is trying to push South America on the free trade front. Brazil is predicted to be the next major power (behind China and India) as it is very large and is building trade routes through South America which will make the USA less powerful in the region. And then there´s Hugo Chavez (the president of Venezuela) who is mouthing off against Bush to any reporter who listens. Very interesting.
This evening we saw Joy off the to airport. It has been great travelling with her. She was always the one to start chatting to other travellers or locals and got valuable information which helped us along the way. Thanks Joy!
After a nice seafood lunch we went to some more gardens set amongst a castle style building which looked like it was used for functions etc. The Chileans seem to love anything European, in fact we haven´t seen many native Indian people at all. Every one looks Spanish. This is a contrast from Peru and Bolivia.
Most places we go in South America we´ve seen political rallies. This is because in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile there are elections coming up. We have learnt a little about the political situation in these areas. Bolivia has natural gas that Chile wants. At the moment Chile gets it´s natural gas from Argentina however Argentina will cut off this supply in two years. Bolivia would prefer to work with Peru to route the gas not Chile as Chile is very aggressive and took valuable land by the sea from Bolivia in the War of the Pacific in the late 1800´s. Chile still has it´s eye on the land rich in resources in both Peru and Bolivia and is building up it´s armed forces capability. The area in Bolivia with the gas is Santz Cruz. Here there are powerful people (I think from Croatia and somewhere else) who want to make Santa Cruz independent from Bolivia. I can understand why Bush is trying to push South America on the free trade front. Brazil is predicted to be the next major power (behind China and India) as it is very large and is building trade routes through South America which will make the USA less powerful in the region. And then there´s Hugo Chavez (the president of Venezuela) who is mouthing off against Bush to any reporter who listens. Very interesting.
This evening we saw Joy off the to airport. It has been great travelling with her. She was always the one to start chatting to other travellers or locals and got valuable information which helped us along the way. Thanks Joy!
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