For a look at our first week in Santiago, click here.

After a week in Santiago, our good friend Andrea joined us! We rented an apartment right in the center and that first afternoon we climbed the nearby hill and garden, Cerro Santa Lucia.

We are so artsy

They don’t claim to have the best ice cream, but they are among the top 25 in the world.

First night rooftop sunset

Taking a rest in front of the Chascona (messy hair), Pablo Neruda’s Santiago home.

At 300 meters tall, the Gran Torre Santiago is the tallest building in all of Latin America. There is a shopping center below it and an observation deck on the 62^nd floor, but the building itself remains almost completely empty.

Sculpture Garden fun

Laughing at dirty jokes

We had a great time on the public exercise equipment scattered around in parks all across the city. I did a full set of fifteen reps three times on the apparatus to the upper right as suggested on the equipment instructions, and was sore for days after. The one to the bottom right was to “articulate your shoulders.” We never quite understood that one.

La Moneda

Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda, a museum just under the plaza of the Moneda.

Faces of Chile exhibit

The Museum of the Memoria, a museum that delves into the life of Chileans during the 18-year dictatorship, was closed exactly the week Andrea was in town.

So instead we headed to the nearby Natural Sciences Museum. Here a whale.

Can’t pass up an opportunity for public exercise!

Palacio Pereira. Located in the heart of Santiago, this neoclassic-style building was severely damaged during the earthquake of 1985. The government recently bought these ruins for a restoration project.

Post Office

Piscos and a Jim Beam Ghost Sour in anticipation of amazing food at Quitral.