We love Santiago

Having gravitated towards the countryside and smaller UK towns and villages over the last few years, we don't really think of ourselves as city people. However, for Santiago we are willing to make an exception.
Santiago is truly:

vibrant

ˈvʌɪbr(ə)nt/

adjective

1. 1.
   

   full of energy and life.
   

   "a vibrant cosmopolitan city"

   synonyms:

   spirited, lively, full of life, full of spirit, high-spirited, energetic, sprightly, vigorous, vital,full of vim and vigour, animated, sparkling, coruscating, effervescent, vivacious,dynamic, flamboyant, electrifying, dazzling, stimulating, exciting, dashing, passionate,fiery, determined; More

   
   

...and felt a world apart from Quito.
Our highlights from Santiago included:

- Great culture - we enjoyed a free photo exhibition with amazing pics of the Torres del Paine - whetting our appetite for the next stage of our trip; we found a free folk concert in one of the cities plazas - including impromptu 'hanky' dancing from the crowd and a great band (with another doing more traditional numbers); we got tickets to an international jazz festival in one of the parks - which started off a little mediocre (fine background music but not enough to enthral either of us) but got better with each act - the third and final being truly excellent; and free funky art galleries...

- Fabulous food & drink - we enjoyed several pisco sours, the interesting national cocktail made from pisco (sugar spirit) and lemon; excellent seafood, particularly at a restaurant called Liguria which we found on our first night and was so good we went back to its sister restaurant on our final night; and great meat dishes - particularly the Churracso (a sublime local fast food dish of steak chunks cooked with onion and egg on top of fries - this description certainly doesn't do it justice!)
- Good wine - we toured two very different wineries in the outskirts of Santiago - Concha y Toro (the 3rd largest winery in the world, and one you will probably all have heard of or at least have drunk at some point) and Vina Acquitania (a tiny winery producing c.15k cases a year). Both tours were great in their own ways - and while we enjoyed the wines, neither of us were blown away by them - something which we're hoping New Zealand will make up for!!!

Castillero del Diablo

- Friendly people - including a security guard who, having spotted us looking round a small photo gallery managed to communicate to us - despite our very poor Spanish and his non-existent English that there was an excellent gallery of Torres del Paine pics a few hundred meters away; various waiters who humoured our poor attempts at Spanish; and a bus driver in the outskirts of Santiago who took pity on us for not having the travel card we should have had and let us on the bus for free!
- And a good overall vibe - feeling safe to walk around in most areas day and night (and we certainly covered a fair distance every day, walking from one place to the next); having lots of parks, plazas and other open spaces full of life (we enjoyed a couple of early morning runs - to start to counter the excesses of our week in the Galapagos) and having a clean, efficient and cheap tube network (75p for a 1 hour journey!)
So it is with regret we find ourselves on a flight out of Santiago - but excited to be on our way to Patagonia - and the Torres del Paine, recently voted the eighth wonder of the world.