"My first visit to South America for 19 years was to start with a long flight from London to Santiago in Chile. Travelling via Caracas and Beunos Aires with Venezuelan Air, it was one flight where I was hoping there would be a bit of a delay, but no luck and we arrived on time, at the inconvenient hour of 3am. There seemed no point in taking a taxi into town and trying to find a hotel, so, after the rest of the passengers had been whisked away by waiting friends and relatives, I moved into the empty departure lounge to wait for daylight and the first airport bus at 6:30am.
 
The thing that did surprise me on the drive into the city was how dry and burnt the countryside looked, more reminiscent for me of being back in Saudi. The bus driver dropped me close to the centre and I set off to find a hotel. Within a short time it started to rain, at first I could not understand why everyone seemed so happy when the weather was so miserable. I discovered later that it was the first rain they had had in over 4 months. As for finding a hotel, my luck had again deserted me. I tried  all the cheap hotels mentioned in my guide book, and the Youth Hostel, but all were full. In the end I managed to get a room at a rather seedy looking pension near the bus station for £5. I stayed there two nights, and though my first impressions of the place were not good it turned out to be OK and quite friendly. It was about 2pm by this time and I felt that I must have seen most of the centre. It was still raining hard so I contented myself with just finding somewhere giving a good exchange rate and changed some money, then had a meal, after which I was ready to catchup on some sleep.
 
After a good nights rest I woke early to a nice sunny morning. The city that I had thought of the day before as a very drab place seemed much better.
 
Santiago was founded by the Spanish in 1541, though little seems to remain of its early Spanish days except the Cathedral and a few nearby buildings. The rest of the city being mainly of 19th century mid European and modern architecture, and at times I found it difficult believing I was really in South America. Due to my keeness to travel to the south of the country before winter set in, I only had the two full days in Santiago, but felt they had been quite sufficient.
 
On the evening of my second day I squeezed onto a crowded commuter bus to go out to one of the northern suburbs to visit some friends of a Chilean family I knew in Preston. The journey of about 6 miles took well over an hour through the traffic jams. The family who had lived in the UK for some years made me very welcome, and as well as entertaining me to a good meal, made some useful suggestions for my planned trip. They lived in a pleasant area with tree lined streets and detached houses. 
 
For the two hours I spent painting the picture of the market above, the lady in the picture with the camera on a tripod never had a single customer, I felt quite sorry for her." - MH