The Road to Santiago (NS)

…..well, we say road, it´s a very long way from Seattle until Santiago so we flew, again via Dallas. We arrived at ten am after 24 hours travelling, so got our heads down straight away. Santiago is Chile´s capital and houses a large percentage of Chile´s population. It is surrounded by the Andes and sits at 500 feet above sea level (thanks MD), whichs seems to keep in all the poor quality air. In the winter when the air is heavier there are major issues with air quality, causing a great deal of illness. We have not been here long enough to know if this is just a hazard of the city, or whether something is to be done. We awoke at midday in 30 degree heat (thanks MD), thirty hours earler we awoke to ten degrees so it was quite a change. We left our hostel and headed off for water, taking the camera so we could get some first impression snaps. The area our hostel is in is mainly old colonial buildings that have been left to crumble, a few however are now in the process of being restored and they stick out like sore thumbs against their neglected neighbours. I turned on the camera to get a picture but to our horror the camera would not work. After checking batteries, memory cards etc it was confirmed that it was broken. If we had known of the camera´s state 48 hours earlier we could have got one in the States cheap, or even better from duty free for half the price. Still, there was nothing we could do so we headed off into town. The purchase was surprisingly easy bearing in mind neither mine nor Tasmin´s camera-specific-Spanish is that good. Luckily memory card is a global term. I bought a newer version of the broken Sony as we knew the instructions and on-screen menus would be in Spanish. A quick fiddle and the on-screen menus were changed to English but I am yet to discover how a couple of the features work. We rested for the remainder of the day. We went to bed at around ten and at 1.30 we both woke and could not get back to sleep, even counting sheep didn´t have an affect. The hostel had free internet so we got up and sent a ´we are here and safe´email to our families.
The next day we toured the city taken in local monuments of interest including a huge church ´Templo Santo Domingo´. We took a walk in, no service was going on but the place was packed with people. Some in pews, full of thought, some at the front of their knees praying infront of a huge crucifix. And some weeping in front of a cross with flowers hanging on it and beside it. I have visited many churches in my time but they are normally empty outside of service times. It is no reflection on the people and nothing was said to us but we felt terribly uncomfortable there as tourists. I said a little prayer, praying that the peolpe praying would soon get over their grief, then we left.
In addition we visited a market with an amazing display of fresh fish which was built in Birmingham (UK) and shipped over, the Presidential offices and the old train station, which looked very much like Waterloo.
There is a lot of new buildings being built here from concrete and glass like in many cities, but what particularly makes these stand out is the contrast between the old and the refurbished colonial next to them.
In the centre of the city is as massive hill some 150 m high. At its base is a park with fountains and plenty of trees providing shade to cool by. Walking in the heat had taken its toll on us so we took advantage of our surroundings. After resting and taking on water we headed up the hill. The next level had a beautiful pillared monument set into the wall. It was quite impressive. The third layer of this mulit-tiered park on a hill had smaller fountains in which children were playing closely watched by their parents or older siblings. Tas took the opportunity to cool her feet in one of these fountains. As we got higher there were fewer trees and an improved view, we got to the top and the views were magnificent. The snow-capped moutains of the Andes could be seen in the distance, acting as a firm boundry to which the city had expanded. The rest of the view was of the huge city sprawling as far as the eye could see. We made our desent and then popped to a glaceria for helados. We both had a banana split with three types of ice-cream. A well deserved treat after our calorific hike up the hill.
We sat in the shade in one of the many plazas and read for a while. I am reading the Motorcycle diaries which Z-C bought me for Christmas, very topical.
So it was goodbye to Santiago, not a particularly beautiful ciry, but one filled with very nice people. Everyone we have had small dealings with has been very friendly and very helpful in a genuine way. If all Chileans are like this we will be very happy.

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