Funicular

The hill of San Cristobal is surrounded by Santiago, and is steep enough that it has two cable cars up it - a funicular and a gondola. We went up the funicular.

At the top, as is common in South American countries, is a statue of the Virgin Mary.

There are quite good views of Santiago - I chose to give you one that includes the Santa Lucia park and the area where I’m staying.

But, before this, we went to the home of one of Chile’s Nobel laureates - Pablo Neruda who died of cancer just after the coup. The home shows very eclectic taste, and was very interesting, as was the story of how his widow fought on after the coup.

We went to lunch in a place that was high in the mountains surrounding Santiago, where they are building a lot of modern high end housing. They had some interesting artwork on the walls.

After lunch we went to the museum of precolombian art. It had an absolutely amazing textile collection - most of which couldn’t be photographed. It includes some of the oldest textiles I have ever seen.

Including some of the quipu.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the oldest church in Chile.