Santiago 5 days

Some impressions of Santiago. A city of 7 million, too big and noisy for me and given the many earthquakes and development,  the buildings are constantly being replaced so there’s not lot of architectural style. Went to the Museum of Human Rights and Memory   main exhibition on the Allende socialist 3 years then overthrown by a military coup led by General Pinochet and originally supported by the West because military tortured and disappeared the communists.  One evening while I’ d been strolling through Parque Forestsal (statue attached) there was a huge protest on the corner about the Venezuela government I think so I retreated to the rooftop bar with a cuppa tea! I met up with the G Adventures group Thursday night   there are 14, mainly English,  3 Aus, I have shared room with young aboriginal circus performer girl Ali. The main character is Richard I’ll call Richard the Inquisitor as he questions every guide about everything.  Our local guide is chilean Stevie accompanying us. He got us all on the night bus in slightly scary Santiago bus station, arriving next morning to cold country town like Marysville.  When the clouds cleared there was revealed an active smoking snow-capped volcano! This is an activity town with everything canyoning, hiking  , white water rafting, but I went for beautiful spa.