Chile (part1) -TRAVEL BLOG- Street art, Grafitti, a soccer game and a beautiful beach!

When i travel to a new place, i always try to meet people online from that specific country. They can help me to see the real life there and not only the regular touristical places and prevent me from going left where i should go rigth!

True the years i met many people this way where i stayed or that helped me to get going in a new country. Most of them are still very good friends, some i still talk to online, some i visit again and sometimes they come and visit me in the Netherlands.

Wulff Castle, Vina del mar, Valparaíso

In Chile i have my friend Julio, he was a great host! He told me rigth away: I will pick you up from the airport and you can stay with me and my family the first couple of days. Those few days became 12 days in total, I flew to Easter Island inbetween. Here is a link to a blog i wrote about it: https://steemit.com/travel/@luckyme03200/travel-blog-easter-island-a-hidden-and-mysterious-gem

Its one of the warmest and welcoming family i have ever met and when i left, his mother told me she sees me as her son on the otherside of the world and still sends me a message every now and then!
For sure one day i will go back there! If they ever read this: I love you guys!

Julio took the picture, too bad for him ...he isnt on it himself ;-)

They are living in the capital, Santiago de Chile. Its a big city, 6.3 million people and i really liked the view when i arrived by plane, you can see the Andes mountain peaks behind the city..very impressive!
I didnt take a picture myself, this one will give you an idea:

source

Ofcourse lots of things to do in Santiago, i really liked the square near Metropolitan Cathedral

Lots of artist that are painting there or trying to make some money in another way.

People playing chess and many good coffee bars. Something that was new to me was coffee with legs (free translation), you go for a cup of coffee and sexy women in lingerie will serve it to you...it was funny, i wont place pictures of it here, lets call that privacy for the girls ;-)

You can climb Santa Lucía Hill to get a nice view of the city and see this beautiful fountain

One thing on my wishlist was attending a soccer game in South America, the temperament and joy people have here is so much better then in Europe, and I was Lucky, Chile played against Urugay!
Julio managed to get two tickets and I had a great time...plus...Chile won!

Fantastic atmosphere!

goal!!!

if you like food, go to mercado central! Its a big indoor market in a very nice old building where you can buy lots of local products and are many small little restaurants also!

Fresh fish, fruits, you name it and they have it!

About two hours by car you can visit Valparaíso, Chilean National Congress has its headquarters here but the city has much more to offer. There are many universities here and it has a big port. European immigrants called it "little San Fransisco".
The historical part is on the UNESCO list and has a lot of beautiful buildings and a lot of houses have a nice color or grafitti art on them.

The small roads can be very steep, the old city was build on several levels you could say.
To be able to transport all supplies that people need (or simply to save yourself some energy) they use what they call: ascensores, elevators or Funicular railways.

Not all the roads are accesible for cars

From the higher levels you have a great view over the old part of the city, its not the best picture but it gives the city a very nice look all the colors!

Very close to the city there is Viña del Mar, its has some nice beaches, Chile has a coast line of 4300km, not the longest in the world like a lot of people say but still in second place, Brasil beats Chile with 95km!
The first picture of the castle by sunset was taken there also.

Chile has a lot to offer, i didnt stay very long, i only had a few weeks of traveling left so i crossed borders to Argentina a little fast. I did have another adventure, climbing the Villarica volcano and i will write a seperate blog about that asap!

Hope you enjoyed reading, please be so kind to resteem this so more people can value my work.
For more blogs about all kinds of countries feel free to follow me!

Thank you for your time!