Santiago Metropolitan Region

The Metropolitan region es located practically in the center of Chile and includes Santiago, the capital of the country.
Santiago is a large and extensive city, with 5 millions inhabitants. It is situated at the foot of the Andes mountains. To the west are large valleys divide in some parts by the coastal ranges, that are of lower altitudes, but which are importan for the climate conditions of the city.
Santiago was founded on February 1541 by Pedro de Valdivia. He started Santiago at the foot of a small hill called Santa Lucía, which at that time was called Huelén.

The climate temperatures range from 86 degrees Fahrenheit or 30 degrees centigrade in January to 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees centigrade in July. The rains are not heavy and usually fall between April and September.


   Santiago is intersected to the east and west by the Mapocho river. It's a big city with all the modern requirements, beautiful landscapes and with the singularity of having excellent ski slopes and hour away and just two hours away are beautiful beaches of the Pacific Ocean.


There are three basic options for travel inside the city. The first is the yellow buses that travel throughout the city with prearranged routes. The second is taxis with taximeters that guarantee a fair charge at the end of your destination. And the third is the Metro, or subway, that has a 3 sepparate lines in different areas of the city.

In the old part of the city, there are various monuments of the colonial times, like the Iglesia de San Francisco, with its dark red color in the southern part of the Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins: the Correo; the Cathedral; the Museo Histórico Nacional; the Casa Colorada, this last being a colonial museum which has a complete history of Chile during the time when Chile was dominated by the Spaniards.
There is also de Palacio de la Moneda, which is where the government is administrated, together with de Ministers and the rest of the public officials.
Another arquitectural example is the Paris-Londres neighborhood, also a national monument, located in the area of the Iglesia San Francisco.
The Parque Forestal borders the downtown area, and is a long narrow park alongside the Mapocho river. It contains the Museo de Bellas Artes, which has frech arquitecture outside and more than 6000 works of art of famous artists and interesting expositions inside.
A little to the north is the cerro San Cristobal. It has a gigantic figure of the Virgen Mary, which is illuminated at night and is possible to see from almost every part of the city.