
What to see in Santiago
Santiago has a lot to offer, so I only pick out the things I liked the most.
The Cerro Santa Lucía has a nice view over the town and is easy to climb. The Barrio Lastarria has nice little shops for book lovers and music fans, as well as second hand stuff. The Barrio Brazil is very calm and peaceful. The Barrio Patronato is good for shopping Asian clothes (including Indian) and food.
The Palacio de Bellas Artes is for free and shows mainly art history. Unfortunately the sculptures are not protected at all and show many marks of people touching them regularly. The Contemporary Art part was closed due to transformation.
The Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda is situated right below the plaza of the parliament. Maybe this is a cultural difference between Chile and Switzerland. Whereas Switzerland has their gold safes underneath the parliaments place, Chile offers a cultural space with two museums and an art movie cinema.
The Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos is for free and tells the history of the Pinochet dictatorship from its beginning until the end on three floors. This is an important station to understand the Chilean history. Some parts of the exhibition are cruel and not easy to process, but it is important to not forget, as the interactive wall in front of the museum shows. They really showed an eye for detail when they constructed the place next to the museum, but only smart eyes will see. Hint: sea horse!
I stayed with a vegan couchsurfer.

