Coming from San Pedro de Atacama, it’s possible to do the trip by bus. However, after looking into it, the journey time was around 24 to 30 hours which is a bit too much for me. So we opted to take a flight from the nearby city of Calama. We booked the flight in advance, but we still had to get a bus transfer from San Pedro de Atacama to Calama. We tried getting a ticket on the day we arrived, but all buses were full in the agency we asked. They said another agency would open its offices the next day, so we came back then, and luckily they had seats available to leave in the morning which cost 3,000 CLP1 each. The bus journey only takes 1-hour 30-minutes and dropped us off at the Turbus terminal. We still had a couple of hours before our 6.30 PM flight, so we headed to the Mall Plaza Calama which was a 15-minute walk away. We spent some time here before taking a taxi to the Airport. It was a 15-minute drive and cost 5,000 CLP. It’s then a 2-hour flight from Calama to Santiago. Our hotel was near Estacion Central (Central Station) and since it was quite late, we took an Uber2. It took about 20 minutes and cost 12,689 CLP.
The City
Since we got there on a Saturday night, we decided to check out the city’s nightlife. The Uber driver who took us to our hotel told us the party zone was in Pio Nono street, in Barrio Bellavista. There’s a couple of bars and clubs in the area, but what’s interesting here is what I can only think to describe as outdoor canteens. It’s a large open space, some under a large tent, and there are rows of tables and chairs. You come in, sit down, and a waiter will come around to take your order of drinks. It’s also quite cheap compared to the clubs. It looks like most people come here for drinks before heading to clubs. Overall, it was a great night out and the clubs stay open until around 6 AM.
The following morning, we decided to check out the city via public transport since our hotel was close to a metro station. To use the metro, you need to purchase a Bip card which costs 1550 CLP. You then need to top up the card. An off-peak journey costs 640 CLP and since you can use 1 card between 2 people, we topped up 5400 CLP to get us through the day. On this Sunday, there happened to be a parade in the city center, so the subway wasn’t stopping there. Therefore, we had to take a bus which was stopping near there. The same Bip card works on the bus as well. We first made our way to the Plaza de Armas which is the city’s main central square that has a Cathedral and the Museo Histórico Nacional (National History Museum) as well as some colonial buildings in the area. We walked around for a bit and then headed to a viewpoint at Cerro Santa Lucia.
There’s an arts and crafts market opposite this viewpoint where you can get cheap souvenirs as well. Other than the main viewpoint in Cerro Santa Lucia, which is a hilltop castle called Castillo Hidalgo, it’s a nice place to go for a walk and also visit a couple of gardens. Once we’d finish walking around, we headed to the Mercado Central. This is a market known for bringing in fresh seafood. There are several restaurants there and it’s popular among the locals. After the market, we went to another viewpoint at Cerro San Cristobal. To get to the top, we decided to take the funicular which started from the end of Pio Nono street in Barrio Bellavista. There are several different ticket options and we went for the Funicular plus Cable Car which cost 4220 CLP each.
This viewpoint is a lot higher than the one at Cerro Santa Lucia, so you get a much better view of the city. Once at the top, you can walk up a little further to the statue of the Virgin Mary. From here, you can see the snow-topped Andes Mountain Range in the distance, or maybe I didn’t notice it earlier. It’s a great site unlike any other I had seen before. From the top, we then took the cable cars which takes you around the park. The park is huge and looks like it would have been fun to explore, but since we didn’t have much time, the cable car was a good way to get a good view of the park. The park was closing at around 7 PM, so we had to get off at a different park exit. From here we made our way to a metro station and headed back to the hotel. Overall, Santiago is a beautiful city and I wish I had another day to spend there, but we were scheduled to go to Valparaiso the next day.
