SANTIAGO: THE CAPITAL OF LAID-BACK LIFE Though Chile is known for its laid-back attitude, it doesn't take long for one to discover its vibrant culture

By Matt Stabile

Let’s just say I was already feeling a little light-headed before I found myself thousands of feet in the air, looking out over the Andes Mountains. Buenos Aires is not exactly known as a sleeper-friendly city, and the last five days for me there were no exception. So by the time I got to the Airport for my 5:45 flight to Santiago, Chile -- after only heading to bed a few hours before -- my head already felt like I had been aloft for several hours.

I was initially going to spend my entire trip in Argentina, but after finding out that my friend’s brother was living and teaching English in Santiago, I decided that I might as well try to see as much as I could in the time I had in South America. There are plenty of daily flights between the two capitals but no discount airlines operating in either of those countries, so I booked a ticket through the large Chilean airliner LAN for US$250.

On a bus ride back from San Antonio de Areco to Buenos Aires I met a trio of girls from Colorado who’d been backpacking around the continent for the last three months. The girl sitting next to me began showing me pictures on her camera and we came across some incredible shots of the Andes from her flight to Argentina. I told her I was flying out the next day and she recommended getting a window seat to get the best view. So the next day on my early-morning flight when the stewardesses disappeared behind the first-class curtain before takeoff, I sneaked into an empty window seat in the bulkhead aisle and promptly leaned my head against the window and shut my eyes, avoiding any impression of impropriety.

About an hour-and-a-half into the two-hour flight, the pilot announced that we were directly above the town of Mendoza and that we’d soon be flying over the foothills of the Andes. A few minutes later I looked out the window and I could see the gently sloping hillsides suddenly angling upwards, jutting towards the sky and revealing the precipitously angled edges and snow-capped peaks that make up this incredible mountain range; one of the most amazing sights I’d ever seen, and I grew up in Colorado.

Twenty minutes later we left the Andes behind and descended into the large, arid valley that Santiago calls home. The city itself is located 1,700 feet above sea level, and with five-and-a-half million residents it’s home to more than a third of the country’s population. From what I’d been hearing about the city while I was in Argentina, Santiago’s vibe is noticeably more laid-back than Buenos Aires but there’s still plenty to do if you know where to look.

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