Santiago de Chile

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Tomorrow, I leave for Easter Island, but thought you might like a quick overview of Santiago before hearing all about the mysteries of Rapa Nui.

Santiago is a great city, completely surrounded by mountains, many of them snow-capped. The city centre is very easy for even a map-illiterate like me to find my way round. Have not got lost once and am secretly rather proud of that!

Plaza D´Armas is the noisiest place I think I´ve ever been in. There are loudspeakers attched to every street lamp, and there a rather a lot of those, blaring out PA notices and dodgy Andean Music at top volume. Gave me a headache after a few minutes, so escaped into the relative quiet of the Cathedral. As usual, the cathedral was rather soothing and full fo interesting points to admire, such as the High Alter and the Crypt, where all the Archbishops are interred. Plenty of small side chapels to admire and linger over.

Braced myself for a noisy onslaught before leaving and walked round to the Archaelogical Museum. All in all, I visited 2 museums in Santiago, both fascinating and crammed full of artefacts, both Inca and pre-Inca.

Have visited the Metropolitan Park and had a riude in a funicular railway. Also looked round the Japanese Gardens and climbed Cerrado Santa Lucia for a stunning view of the City.

The hotel is very well located, not far from bars and resturants. I´ll be avoiding the one I went to on my first night. The menu was all in Spanish, so I guesstimated and after a bolstering glass of Vino Blanco, I took a wild stab in the dark and ordered something that roughly translated to raw meat with parmesan cheese and a risotto for the mains. What I actually received was squid that was remarkably tough for raw meat. After my knife bounced back, I idly wondered how far the squid would bounce if I threw it to the floor (my money was on 8 metres high) but I behaved myself. It was a shame really as the parmesan was really excellent, and I had plenty of it on bread with balsamic vinegar, so a very nice starter in the end. Much better without the squid. The mains, which was supposed to be a risotto was some sort of jet black stuff, which on closer inspection was quinoa, a local specialty. Again, the seafood was tough but some good mussels in there and the black squid ink was very tasty.

The food here is generally very good. I have a favourite cafe in a quiet square, the Mont Blanc, with great views of the mountains and even nicer coffee.

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