Santiago continued...

The image was taken from the balcony of my homestay family in Santiago. It is a city with many natural advantages and problems. The mountains nearby are beautiful and have allowed or disallowed (depending on perspective) a separation of Chile from Argentia. They are also a winter playground for tourists and well off Santiaguenos and present a beautiful view. However, the ´bowl´ in which the city exists holds a lot of smog because of its geography. Today we went to the Cerro san Cristobal and had a lovely lunch looking over the city, but we could not see los Andes because of the smog. We met with Dana Smith, the second secretary to the Canadian ambassador in the morning and had an interesting conversation on politics, economics and the parallels between Canada and Chile. I have to go meet with an environmental consultant now to learn how he does the job I do in Canada here in Chile, so more later. Robyn