Exploring Santiago

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This morning I had to take care of a couple of "housekeeping" chores before really starting the day. My shoes, as I have noted, had gotten very dusty in San Pedro, so I wiped them off as well as I could last night and today I found a shoeshine stand. As in Istanbul, there are shoeshine men everywhere you turn here in Santiago. One difference between the two cities is that the men here have signs advertising their prices. They are either 500 or 600 Chilean Pesos which is one US dollar or a little less. That is cheaper than the shoe shine I had in Istanbul. And the quality of the shine was significantly less, too. Ah well, it was a good cultural experience. I also needed a haircut, something else I had done in Istanbul, and the same logic applies. The haircut here was less expensive, but not as good. Of course, the haircut I had in Istanbul was the best one I ever had in my life... After getting those two things taken care of, I walked out to explore the central city. First I went to the Moneda Palace which is a government building now, but used to be the president's residence until the military attacked President Salvadore Allende there in September 1973. Most of you will remember that Allende died during that attack and General Pinochet took control of the country. Next I visited the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art and was impressed with the quality of the pottery, carving, and weaving that was produced before Europeans arrived in the Americas. The photo is of a pair of ceramic figures from around the time of Christ. I stopped in a cafe and had a chocolate. This turned out to be unsweetened hot chocolate and it was different from what I am used to - no marshmallow, for starters! Still, I liked it and could "taste" the addictive potential of the cacao. Next stop was the fish market where I had lunch. See photos. The fish I had is named "reineta" in Spanish and is a type of pomfret, if that helps you. You can Google either name if you are interested. Personally, I had never heard of either one before, but I liked the mild firm white meat and the veggies that came with it. After lunch I wandered over to church of San Francisco, the oldest building in Santiago. It is a surprisingly large church for being so old - completion date 1628. There are a number of side chapels and many of them have small plaques or handwritten messages from grateful worshipers whose prayers for the saint's intercession were answered. One of the saints with his own "chapel" is San Pio and the graffiti in the picture are thank you notes. As I write this I am sitting in the bar of my hotel and sipping a pisco sour, the national drink of Chile. See photo.

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