Santiago, Chile: The last day of our adventure

It was almost midnight before we arrived at the hotel in Santiago, where we spend just one night before taking our overnight flight back to the USA.

 View of city from our hotel room.

After a short night's sleep, we take off on a walking tour of Santiago.  It is a beautiful city....on one side there are the Andes mountains and on the other side, two rivers meet.

Nelson leads us on our walk through the busy streets.

We walk on the pedestrian-only street and pass by many vendors with their goods (mostly knock-off designer items) displayed on blankets.  Nelson says there must be no police around at this time; but as soon as there is, the vendors wrap up their goods and quickly disappear.

We are headed to the subway for another one of Nelson's "learning and discovery" moments.

 We take the subway to downtown...

 The walls of the subway are filled with pictures of Chile's beautiful landscapes.

And also portraits of ordinary Chilean citizens...

As we walk through the civic center of the city, we are told about the history of Santiago--from settlement by conquistadors in 1541 to the Marxist, military, and finally democratic governments of the 20th century.

First stop is by the Government palace called La Moneda, with colonial architecture.  It is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers.

Next to the grounds of the palace is a statue of the 30th president of Chile--and the  first Marxist to become president of a Latin American country through open elections.

We walk over to the financial district for a look at the stock exchange building...it is the third largest in Latin America designed in the French Renaissance style.

...and then over the the Metropolitan Cathedral with a neoclassical style.

We were able to go inside the cathedral and wander around for a bit.  There are ornate frescos on the ceiling, statues, and gilded columns.

It was then time for our Farewell lunch, high on top of one of the buildings that has a rotating restaurant at the top.

 We had the afternoon to relax, pack our bags, and say our final goodbyes to our many new friends who we met on this trip.

Then we left Santiago on an overnight flight back to the USA.

Thank you for reading through all these posts.  This trip definitely ranks very high on our list of favorite travels.  We are so impressed by this company, Overseas Adventure Travel...a division of Grand Circle and will use them again this fall when we travel to Egypt and Morocco.

If you would like to check out the many trips they offer to take you around the world, just click on this link to their website. http://www.oattravel.com/

And if you would like to book a trip through Grand Circle or OAT, please use our referral code and save $100 per person on your first trip:  Terry Angell, Customer Number:  001883762

Stay tuned for more Angell Travels adventures...it won't be long before we are on the go again!