Jet Lag in Smog City

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After 16 hours in transit, we finally touched down in Santiago. Within 5 minutes of leaving the airport, Nath was already being mistaken for a South American, with everyone rambling at him in Spanish - only to be met with a blank stare.

After settling into our cute Hotel Paris (at $20 a night) in a little cobblestoned neighbourhood, we set out to explore. Downtown Santiago is a maze of bustling pedestrian malls packed shoulder to shoulder with people (doesn´t anyone work here?) and filled with street performers.

We were starving and to our absolute delight, we discovered a local favourite called ´completo´ which is essentially a hot dog but piled with salsa, guacamole & mayo - Nath has become addicted. These things are sold in little diners devoted solely to completos, as well as completo bars on just about every street corner where everyone stands up and eats their completo - that would explain the piles of food & rubbish on the ground!

That night, we went in search of some more local food & found an empanada restaurant which sells 20 different kinds of empanadas. Empanadas are like pastry filled with cheese & meat/veges - kind of like the Chilean version of a pie, so Ashleigh was totally in her element! It was the cutest little candelit place, just a whole in the wall with an oven in the corner of the room. Dinner including wine about $10 all up - love it!

The next couple of days were spent exploring in a jet-lagged daze, not really knowing where we were going but just setting off on foot and seeing what came our way. We discovered the old Parliamentary building which was quite beautiful and surrounded by armed soldiers with massive rifles, despite the fact that parliament doesn´t even sit there anymore. Security was really tight with a huge screening process just to get in to the courtyard - the man in front of us was made to drink from his water bottle. Ashleigh was quite taken by all the guards in their uniform who were quite handsome indeed!

We got around on the metro heaps which is one of Santiago´s surprises - so efficient, they come literally every 30 seconds and cost around 20 cents to go anywhere in the city.

We got the furnicular to the top of one of the mountains bordering Santiago for a panoramic view of the sprawling city covered in smog. In fact, because we were up high it seriously felt like we were in the smog cloud - very smelly and hard to breath. Apparently this happens here in summer - because Santiago is surrounded by the Andes, the smog gets trapped. The Andes jut out of nowhere just behind the city and are very imposing - if you can see them through the smog! At the top of this look out was also a 30m statue of Mary, one of many religious monuments here.

It took us a couple of days to realise that no one eats dinner her until well after 9pm - we were wondering where everyone was when we rocked up at 8!!

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Photos

The City Skyline
A great view of the city from here, that would be much better without the smog that obscures the Andes

Cerro Santa Lucia
Gorgeous Spanish architecture, and the amazing fountain from Ashleigh's head

Comments

[Grant]

Aborginal posing as a Chilean
My friend... when they spoke Spanish/Chilean to you - did you sing some sort of tribal song and dance with around with your boomerang... What does your Curmbidgjeee tribe think of this? The photo with you Nath looks amazing. As does the fountain shot - the courtyard shots are always sensational.