Day 1 – Las Condes… Are we there yet?

Our morning was started off with the delicious intercontinental breakfast provided by our lovely hostel.  It consisted of two pieces of white bread, a slice of lunch meat, a slice of cheese and a yogurt. I chose to make a dry sandwich while Micheline toasted her bread and added Marmalade.  After quick showers by all, we were off and walking to the suburb we were hoping to find lodging in, Las Condes.  The best part of the journey is nobody had an idea of where it was located exactly.  The first barrio we encountered was Barrio Redondo with it’s many shops, street vendors and North American top 40 blasting from random rooms I was quickly transported back to my childhood walking through the streets of Tijuana, Mexico.  The feeling was short lived after we walked through to the next barrio, Barrio Bellevista.  This area is known for it’s nightlife and late night cafes but neither were open during out walk-through at 2:00pm.  The fences and walls were covered with a variety street art ranging from amateur to pro. We would return later to enjoy this part of Chile.  After about 30 minutes more of walking and no real leads and not sure if we were in fact in Las Condes the group decided to return to the the hostel.  Upon arrival at the hostel I was quite excited to find that the elevator was working (we were on the 6th floor).  Curious to see how far our tired feet had taken us, we had been walking for 6 hours, we checked a larger and more detailed map the hostel had.  To our dismay and tired legs we had only trekked half way to our intended destination.  A more direct route was planned for the following day.