A Taste of Chile and France

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Still a little jet-lagged, so late start and a rather interesting breakfast, the juice tasted a bit like washing up liquid and the food slightly bizarre!

Decided to go shopping for some cheap clothes, as warned by the tour guide that the weather was likely to get very cold over the course of the next two weeks, particularly around the Altiplano! Clothes were very reasonable, then we visited the cafe El Rapido and sampled some delicious empanadas. This consists of a fried pastry turnover, with a cheese and mushroom filling. A local delicacy, very nice but not particularly healthy!

We returned to Santa Lucia to see part of the park we had missed yesterday. Great views but lots of smog everywhere, making our throats hurt a little. We walked up the Terraza Neptuno with fountains and curving staircases.

Then we walked past the Parque Forestal, a tree-lined park with lots of statues, past more colonial buildings and churches, until we reached the Museo Nacional Bellas Artes, the modern art gallery, displaying paintings between XVI to XX centuries. The gallery was founded in 1880, then the National Fine Arts Palace was inaugurated on September 21st 1910, containing Chilean and foreign paintings as part of the Chilean Independence Centennial.

The building was very impressive, designed by the Chilean French architect Emile Jecquier who took the Petit Palais from Paris as a model. It was built in a neo-classical style with art nouveau ornamentation. The artwork was very thought provoking, gruesome in places and intriguing at the same time! However the bottom floor was devoted to the missing people during the 1973 coup, and the half-pair of burnt glasses on display - which was a little sad. Some of the rooms were just bizarre containing an array of old objects, whilst others were relaxing, such as the pebble gallery! There were also lots of statues dotted around the gallery.

As we headed back to the hostel, amongst the many stray dogs we saw a very dramatic pinkish-red sunset held within dense clouds. Very eerie, we think because of the huge amount of smog. The square was much more alive since Thursday, with many artists in the centre of the square, street performers, people gathering in the stadium to play chess and beggars. This really is the heart of the bustling city, and gave us a completely different perspective of the place.

In the evening all 13 of the group headed out to a Chilean restaurant for dinner. Not much veggie food, so Ellie ate palm, mushrooms and mashed potato, and Nick had swordfish and baked potato. A slight miss-translation as we actually requested warm vegetables, but ended up with expensive baked potatoes instead - oh well! Nick sampled the local beer and I tried Pisco Sour, a local brandy based drink - very nice! First opportunity to sample the local drinks since arriving. Then we headed back to our hotel for an interesting night, listening to a cat wailing and furniture banging above, along with the noisy traffic and football fans beeping occasionally. Then a tiring 6.50am start the following day!

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