South America Part II

After spending four days in Buenos Aires, we took a somewhat painful 12-hour delayed flight from 4am to 6am into Santiago, Chile - but we made it, and Chile is beautiful.  When I woke up on the first day, my dad had already arranged for a guide to take us up into the Andes and acclimate.  He said the mountains were "calling his name" and from the picture below (which is basically the view from anywhere in the city of Santiago, not to mention our hotel room window) it's easy to understand why.

Our hiking guide was named Francisco (who I mistakenly kept calling "San Francisco"...oops).  He was a interesting guy with a lot of energy who definitely kept us on our toes during our trip.   The first day Francisco took us on the beautiful hike pictured below.  He said he used to hike on this trail all the time after school growing up as a kid in Chile. 

Francisco and my dad were both very patient with my picture taking while we hiked.  Because unlike my dad, i was much more into the picture taking and scenery than they actual hiking ;)

There were lots of horses roaming the hillsides while we hiked. It was so beautiful. We finished hiking just before sunset.  (Note: *ahem, Elizabeth*, I am not dressed in proper hiking gear because I was told this was going to be a short hike).  

The next day we took a break from hiking and walked around touring the city of Santiago.  Santiago is a nice size city with lots of big, clean, beautiful parks.  The economy of Santiago also seemed to be booming with lots of restaurants, shopping and developing businesses.  And just like the people in Buenos Aires, everybody was SO nice and helpful.  

My favorite part of the city is that you can look up and see the Andes Mountains towering over you from anywhere.  They're hard to see in the picture below because it was a foggy day, but if you look really closely you can see their outline behind the buildings.   

^^We ate our fair share of Empanadas while we were there.  Our favorite was the beef, but we tried cheese, shrimp, and chicken also.   And pictured below, my dad ordered this delicious  mint lime lemonade because he saw the locals drinking it and thought it must be special (good thinking!)

^^One of the very best things about our trip was meeting up with my friend Jaylene and her family.  Her family is SO cute, and it was really special to get to hang out with people who live in Santiago and could tell us the "insider" ways :)

The most beautiful experience we had was our day hike to a lake in the middle of the Andes mountains.  I had never seen anything like it.  We hiked through the snow with hiking poles, with the massive mountains towering all around us.   

^^Note: pictured above is where we all almost fell off the mountain.  Francisco decided to turn the car around on this road (coming inches from the huge drop off) while my dad and I both screamed for our lives.  Luckily we survived, but my dad mentioned to him that next time he might want to warn the passengers and let them decide if they want to get out while he turns it around. :)

^^Breathtaking!

This was such a special trip.  Chile you are beautiful!  And a giant thank you to my dad for coming with me.