Woke up to a nice view of sunrise over the Andes without too much smog as there was a big storm yesterday that washed not only the ground but the atmosphere.
I noticed in my AA app that they were offering a small travel credit to volunteer to wait for the next flight as the one we were on was overbooked. Not really a lot for a long haul flight that only runs once daily. I did not make an offer.
Ellie looked down the atrium to the lobby 19 floors below on our way down for breakfast.
Nice view up from here from the rooftop pool. It’s a bit chilly today so we won’t be using it.
After breakfast and lazing around the room until our late checkout after 1 PM (and a stop at OXXO for Ellie to spend her change on some junk food), we hopped on the metro to grab a late lunch before our last bits of sightseeing. On our walk from the station I saw something interesting: shopping cart grill. It smelled really good, but no thanks..
The old standby instead.
It was a really nice afternoon in the heart of Santiago.
We missed out on some of the main areas of graffiti on this visit, but it was still plentiful in this underpass.
We’re going to walk up and around Cerro Santa Lucia, with not only great views in the middle of the big city, but several historical buildings as well.
At the entrance, we were urged by a volunteer to visit the Indigenous Art Exhibition and Boutique. It turned out to be perfect as we found several things that we were going to look for without having to go out of the way!
Ellie got some Ocarinas as souvenirs for herself and friends.
And stuffed alpacas.
This is the Neptune Fountain.
Really quite lush up here, and very clean.
The old Spanish fort near the top.
Not quite there yet, still more stairs to climb.
There’s Cerro San Cristobal where we were last Thursday evening! The line running up the center is the funicular (which we didn’t take). Sadly the smog is returning…
Even with the smog, it’s definitely an oasis up here surrounded by apartment buildings and office skyscrapers.
Ellie heads back down the steep steps in the center of the photo.
And then more steps, even steeper, on the north side.
We look back up at the fort.
And towards the east, a view of where we will be later.
This memorial is for non-believers (Chile was converted to Catholicism in the 1800s) who were buried in this area in the period 1820-1872.
Getting near the bottom, more greenery.
We take a visit to the Japanese garden which is deserted. Even the water in the pool left!
Adios, Cerro Santa Lucia. Always a pleasant stop.
We passed by another location of Holy Moly. Too early for dinner though. Next time!
Down a nice pedestrian zone to Emporio La Rosa. A welcome stop after the hike up the hill in the sun. Thanks for the suggestion, Dave and Deb!
Around the corner, where we’ll head back into the metro, is the Catholic University.
Tourism Chile has some really cute advertisements in some of the metro stations!
Last stop of the day: Gran Torre Costanera’s observation deck, 300 metres above the street. It is the tallest building in South America.
A private event had some of the top floor blocked off. We still had great views.
The upper level was open – surrounded by glass but no roof.
There’s Cerro San Cristobal.
We left the top around 5:20. We had to get back to the hotel, several metro stops away, to get our luggage and head back out to the airport.
Rush hour traffic in Santiago can be pretty bad. Definitely not helping the smog situation.
We arrive back at the airport in plenty of time to leisurely check in.
Passport control was practically empty. This was the entire line. The last two times I’ve been here, the lineup was filling the entire maze and out the door.
We were through passport control, security, and the duty free gauntlet very quickly.
We had a couple hours before the flight and spent it in the Primeclass Pacifico Lounge. It had a great view of the airport.
I took the opportunity to have a shower in their very modern washrooms (Ellie said it was like Japan!). The towel they gave looked tiny but it must work since they’re giving it out… it did work, but I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to use it as someone with long hair.
The lounge was very pleasant, and the bartender super enthusiastic and professional.
My last pisco sour since we’re leaving Chile.
Alright, now it really feels like the vacation is over. Here we are on our first flight, to Miami. What an awesome trip!
They forgot to load Ellie’s kids meal so she got the starter tray and ice cream sundae before anyone else even got a drink to make up for it. Kudos to the cabin crew for that.
I got the beef, it was acceptable.
And of course the sundae and a port.
I only slept for a couple of hours and woke up off the coast of Colombia.
My seat got stuck in the full flat position (yeah, first first world problems), and some attempts from the crew to reset the breaker (it had no power at all) or manually adjust the seat were fruitless. So I had to stay like this up to and including landing which was a bit disconcerting. Thankfully the pilot had a landing that was smooth as butter. AA gave us a US$100 voucher for the trouble, which reduced the cost of the trip even further.
We arrived just after 5 at Miami and it was completely empty.
They had a new Global Entry “kiosk” system at MIA, and I say “kiosk” because for me there was literally nothing to do but look at the camera for one second before it told me to proceed. Ellie was unsuccessful so we had to see a friendly officer who told us it was probably a lack of integration between the new and old systems.
We had a couple of hours to kill before our flight to Denver so we visited the Flagship Lounge. We had an awesome view from our seats.
On the flight to Denver the person sitting in front of us had a “service animal”. It was very well behaved and cute.
Goodbye, Miami!
We have 8 hours to kill in sunny Denver, so I booked us a day pass to use the amenities at the Westin hotel attached to the airport. It was really nice to be able to do that rather than bumming around the airport for that long, and neither of us felt like venturing into town. Here’s the view from the pool.
And looking back at the terminal from the lobby.
Finally we head back into the airport terminal and to the United Club. I saw one of these rare birds heading out. An A340-600. Not many of them were made and even fewer are still flying.
It’s a nice evening here.
And what better way to finish a long trip than the back of the bus. Ellie wants to try the window for once, so it’s middle seat for me!
Two of the overhead bins popped open while we were taxiing to takeoff. The one above us did too but I was able to get it closed again. No one got up to close this one.
Here we are back at home. It was so good!
Ellie's Adventures 
