STROLLING AROUND SANTIAGO CENTRO

Considering that this is the end of my fifth trip to Chile, I would normally not be making a special trip around the city madly shooting snapshots of famous landmarks, but considering that there might be several of you who are checking into this blog who might like to see such photos, that´s exactly what I did on Saturday, with the plan to post a half-dozen pictures here for general consumption.
This first picture was taken along the Alameda Bernardo O´Higgins not far from Cerro Santa Lucia. It shows the front building of the Universidad de Chile. Strolling a bit further down along the Alameda one eventually comes to El Palacio La Moneda, which is the Chilean Presidential Palace, shown in this next photo:

La Moneda is the seat of Chile´s government, the place where current President Michelle Bachelet has her offices. It is also the scene where the martyred former President Salvador Allende lost his life during the Pinochet golpe de estado which happened on September 11, 1973, a date which marks Chilean history like no other. The next picture is of the memorial statue of Salvador Allende, which is in front of the Justice Ministry and faces La Moneda:

This next picture shows some of the striking buildings in Santiago´s financial district. The streets are fairly quiet because it was Saturday. Otherwise, they would be humming with activity:

Now we come to the famous Plaza de Armas, and this next picture shows the grand Iglesia Catedral, which fairly dominates the view to the noorthwest from the heart of the plaza:

Finally, here is a picture of the statue of the Conquistador of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia, located in the northeast corner of the plaza:

Well, there you have it. I quickie glimpse of some of the landmarks of the city of Santiago. Now, my flight back to the USA leaves here tomorrow night at 10:30 local time. The flight is non-stop overnight to Atlanta, GA, where I will be changing planes for a flight to Salt Lake City, UT, where my car is parked. My scheduled arrival in Salt Lake will be 10:30 a.m. on the morning of the 14th, and I will plan to go from there driving westward to my home in Wells, Nevada.

Actually, I am thinking that this will be my last post for this time around from South America. Tomorrow will be a bit of a touchy day since I have been having a number of communication connection problems with my friend and agent Andres Gabor. There seems to be a bit of a problem with the cell phone network, so I will be spending most of my time trying to get through to him to ensure that I make it alright tomorrow night out to the airport.

Regardless, it has been a good time, and I do hope that you have enjoyed following my monologue here once again. Chao, amigos!