This is the front and back of the office of the Chilean president, called La Moneda. This translates to "the coin" because it used to be the Mint. There is a money museum in the basement of the bank across the street from it.La parte delantera y trasera de La Moneda, que es la officina del presidente chileno. Tiene este nombre porque era la fabrica de monedas. A su lado, hay un banco con un museo de dinero en su subterráneo
In Puebla, Mexico I fell in love with the architecture. While it is true that the buildings in the historical downtown of Santiago don't hold the same richness, beautiful buildings can still be found in niches between tall office buildings and construction sites.
Just down the road from La Moneda, you will find Hidalgo's castle on the very well fortified hill of Santa Lucia. You are allowed to climb all over it (I recommend taking the elevator located at the back to the halfway point) but the interior is closed to the public but can be booked for private events.
If you would like a virtual tour click here.
El Castillo Hidalgo se encuentra en la misma avenida de La Moneda encima del cerro Santa Lucia. Uno puede subir el cerro pero es prohibido entrar sino para un evento privado.
Por un tour virtual haz click acá
La Serena
We took some time to make the eight hour drive up Route 5 which is also part of the Pan-American highway along a stretch of Chile's coast to La Serena (translation "the mermaid") a small beach town. It is A on the map. If it took eight hours to travel such a small part of Chile, what would it take to drive the whole thing?Fuimos a la ciudad de La Serena por parte de Ruta Panamericana que va por la costa. La Serena es una ciudad reconocida por sus playas. En el mapa La Serena es el punto "A." Si nos costó ocho horas llegar de Santiago ¿cuantás costáramos viajar todo de Chile?
Esta iglesia pequeña me capturó la atención por su campanario. Se dice que la iglesia se construida, se capturada por piratas, se liberatada por un cristiano, se incendiada, y se reconstruida.
The Mamalluca Observatory near the town of Vicuña one hour from La Serena.
El Observatorio de Mamalluca que está en Vicuña que está una hora de distancia de La Serena.
Below is the popular southern constellation called the Southern Cross or Crux (Latin for cross). It looks like a "Y" because the top star is too light to be captured by my camera. The cross is actually the top four stars (top three in this picture) and the bottom two are pointers. It was used by navigators to find the southern axis which is four and a half lengths of the left and right in a direct line to the right of the right star. This constellation can be seen on clear nights even from inside the city of Santiago.
Esta constelación es la Cruz del Sur o Crux (que significa cruz en Latín). Esta foto se falta la estrella que está encima de la constelación porque mi cámara se faltó la habilidad capturarla. Se usada para determinar el punto de cardinal sur que está prolongando cuatro veces y media en línea recta el eje principal de la cruz (en esta foto, está a la derecha de las estrellas izquierda y derecha). Las dos estrellas que están bajas de la constelación no son parte de la cruz pero se usado para encontrarla.
Not far from there is Elqui Valley. The Napa Valley of Chile which is a long skinny oasis winding between the mountainous desert.
Valle de Elquí está cerca al observatorio. Es una oasis larga y estrecha que está llena de innumerables viñas.
We ate at the beautiful outside Mistral distillery restaurant located with the amazing view in the small town of Pisco Elqui and toured their museum.
Comimos en el hermoso restaurante de la Distilería de Pisco Mistral. También fuimos en el tour de su museo.
The next day we took this lonely dirt road to Punta Choros and then got on a boat tour of the Damas Islands to see dolphins, Humboldt penguins, sea lions, birds and other wild life.
