Santiago de Chile...

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... to give it it's full name.


We had three great days in Chile's capital city. The weather was sunny and hot, the food was good, the public transport system works, and the sights were fab.

The sprawling mass of the city lies on a flat plain surrounded by snow-capped and un-snow-capped mountains, some of which you can just about see in the photos. There are two large hills in 'downtown' Santiago, the largest of which (San Cristobel) you can ascend on a fenicular railway or in a cable car, or walk up (we chose to go up on the railway and come down in the cable car, lazy buggers - but it was in the high 20s Celsius) and you get fantastic views over the whole of the city. At the top is a large statue of the virgin Mary, overlooking the city.

The other hill, Santa Lucia, is smaller (so we walked up that one). This smaller one is where, in 15??, a Spanish chap named Pedro de Valdivia founded the new city of Santiago.


Other interesting things we did in Santiago...

Went to the 'central market' for lunch (a bit like Leicester market on a Saturday except there are lots of fish restaurants in there, all crazily touting for business). Our waiter helpfully recommended the king crab (only £49 per person) with a nice bottle of £50 wine to wash it down with. His enthusiasm seemed to nosedive when we went for the £5 salmon and local wine instead...
We were told that the market building came from Birmingham in the 1880s. Not sure if this is true or if he was just trying to ingratiate himself to our English sensibilities!

We went to a good museum of 'Pre-Colombian' (i.e. pre Spanish conquest) artefacts. Mainly the usual fare of plates, water jugs, fish-hooks, etc until the last section, when we found ourselves in for something of a surprise. Some clever-clogs American archaeologist has come up with a theory of how the Moche people (remember them from Huanchaco?) of Peru ensured their rulers were successfully reincarnated after death. This theory revolves a man named "Wrinkle-Face", an iguana, subordinate females, and lots and lots of unorthodox sexual activity (mainly ****ing, ****ing, and some ****ing(!) for good measure). All of these intricate poses were visually recorded by the Moche folk in clay models, and have been put on display by the museum for us all to 'enjoy'. It was like a 3-D kama sutra, Peruvian style. To our great disappointment (well, Jez's) we weren't allowed to take photos in the museum.
Although this archaeologist may have something, we tend to think that the theory was a little bit 'loose', escpecially the bit about "Wrinkle-Face" and the iguana!

On Monday we travelled south to Temuco, and hired a car for 10 days in which to explore the 'Lake District' area of Chile. We are slowly getting used to a left-hand-drive car but some of the Chilean Highway Code remains a mystery, for example who has right of way at the numerous cross-roads in towns (we still don't know, so we just always give everybody else right of way).

You may have heard about the earthquake in northern Chile on Wednesday (thanks for the flood of emails checking we are OK...) which caused alot of damage but only a few human casualties. It's funny to think that we were in that region only a couple of weeks ago.

Bye for now,
Love Jez and Bridget
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Photos

The Cathedral
When they put a Christmas Tree up, they do it thoroughly! Spot the men at the top building the tree? Bridget particularly liked the copper trees in the foreground that line the plaza.

A fountain.
How lovely.