From Mendoza we made our way over the border into Chile. I have to say that this bus journey runs along the most impressive landscape i have seen. Its a couple of months into the spring and while most of the snow has melted from the mountains there were many places where thick slabs of ice still scatter across the land, it is a very impressive view. Getting through the border went without issue, just had to wait for a couple of hours. Everything was offloaded from the bus, put through the xray machine. Some bags were picked for random searches but luckily none of ours were chosen- not that i was bringing anything dodgy across the border, just had a heap of dirty laundry in the bag!
The concesus on Santiago from other travellers wasn't good so i wasn't expecting very much from the city. But i have to say after spending a couple of days there, i am very impressed. It is one of the city's that i really liked. This was probably helped by the fact we were staying in the bar and restaurant district of the city. It had quite a bohemian feel to it and was surrounded by many theatres. As we were only spending a couple of days in this place, we did a bus tour of the city. One of the stops was in the city park that has a small garden dedicated to a Benjamin Vicuna MacKenna. Well once i saw the surname, my interest was piqued. It turned out he was a Chilean historian and journalist in the 1800s who was sentenced to death for his part in the revolution of 1851. Escaping death he lived in exile for many years before unsuccessfully running for presidency in 1875. His greatest achievement was the 100 volumes of Chilean history that he penned. In this particular park they have a hermitage dedicated to him and there is even an avenue named after him. Good to see the MacKenna's up in lights!
The concesus on Santiago from other travellers wasn't good so i wasn't expecting very much from the city. But i have to say after spending a couple of days there, i am very impressed. It is one of the city's that i really liked. This was probably helped by the fact we were staying in the bar and restaurant district of the city. It had quite a bohemian feel to it and was surrounded by many theatres. As we were only spending a couple of days in this place, we did a bus tour of the city. One of the stops was in the city park that has a small garden dedicated to a Benjamin Vicuna MacKenna. Well once i saw the surname, my interest was piqued. It turned out he was a Chilean historian and journalist in the 1800s who was sentenced to death for his part in the revolution of 1851. Escaping death he lived in exile for many years before unsuccessfully running for presidency in 1875. His greatest achievement was the 100 volumes of Chilean history that he penned. In this particular park they have a hermitage dedicated to him and there is even an avenue named after him. Good to see the MacKenna's up in lights!
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