A little bit underwhelming!

Took off this morning for a 15km walk (about 5 hours) around the city to try to find some notable landmarks. But only a few historical buildings from the Spanish colonial period remain because – like the rest of the country – Santiago is regularly hit by earthquakes. The few old buildings that remain are quite plain in their appearance. For a city of 5.5 million people it seems that the main activity is shopping! There are only a few parks of any note and most of the more attractive streets are populated by street traders. Santiago is a very walkable city, as it's very flat and the weather at this time of year is perfect, although it is pretty smoggy as the city is surrounded by mountains. Banks in Chile only open from 9am to 2pm Mon to Fri and very few open on Saturday mornings, so it's usual to seem massive lines outside the banks. Some of the lines today were over 500m long!

Tonight I had my first real taste of Chile - Ceviche: Fresh fish marinated in citrus juices, a staple of Chilean cuisine, washed down with a red local beer - Delicious!