Santiago-Chile

In June, I made 2 trips to Santiago Chile. Their fall season was just beginning then. Santiago is located in a valley beside the Andes mountains. On a clear day, you can see some snow capped mountains. The mountains surround the city in most directions. However, sometimes the mountains are barely visible due to smog. Since the city is surrounded by mountains, the smog can build up and make it difficult to see long distances. Usually the air clears up very well after a good rain.

I stayed in the Holiday Inn Express which was very convenient since it was only one block from my work office at Sony Ericsson. The following picture shows the tall glass paneled building where Sony Ericsson is located and just to the right is a hotel, the Holiday Inn Express. (***Note that you can always click on any picture to see a larger version of the picture, but then you have to click your back arrow on the browser to get back to my blog):


The next picture below shows one view from my hotel room looking towards the building where I was working:


The next picture below is one view from the work office (19th floor) looking over the city towards the Andes mountains:


One task for my job was to test the cell phones while driving from the city and part of the way up into the mountains. It is a good drive with lots of good views of the mountains and a river. The following pictures are some samples of the view on the road going up to the mountains:










While in Santiago, I also visited an arts and crafts center located in the Santiago city. The center has multiple names. I believe the official name is "Los Graneros del Alba", but it is also known as "Centro Artesanal Los Dominicos" and as "Pueblito Los Dominicos". It is a collection of small business shops arranged in a village with small streets for pedestrians only. The picture below is at the main entrance walkway into the artesanal.


The arts complex contains many small shops with arts and crafts such as wood carvings, stone statues, hand made jewelry, copper items, native indian art and paintings, leather goods, etc. It would take much of a full day to visit every one of the shops there. The picture below is me standing in front of one shop where there were many handmade clay pots, statues, and indian art work. I bought a clay statue here for Pat to hang on the wall.


Here is another picture taken as I was walking down one of the many pedestrian streets in the arts complex:


The arts center is located adjacent to an old church called Los Dominicos. I was not able to go inside the church while I was there due to being short on time, but hopefully I can get back there for a visit again on a future trip. The picture below is me standing in front of the church: