Santiago: In brief

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Our stay in Santiago was short, and even rather tame in comparison to some of our other adventures so far. With time heavily against us given Katie´s deadline to be in Equador by the 17th July, we decided that 3 days should be sufficient to eek out the best of what Chile´s capital had to offer. Arriving at the crack of dawn, we checked into our hostel, the infamous revellers´ paradise, La Casa Roja. Despite this however, our three days in the city were characterised more by slobbing around with fast food and a movie than burning the candle at both ends every night. By that stage our desire for some home comfort food had become imperative, and so we (shamefully) indulged in both Dominos Pizza and a slap up chinese meal during our first day alone! Besides all the gluttony, we spent much of our time wandering the streets and admiring the bustle of our first major city since Buenos Aires. Interestingly, on our first day, as we waited about for our room to be cleaned in the hostel (a consequence of our early arrival) we sat in a cafe overlooking the main square, which was filled with marching bands and crowds of people. When we inquired as to the occasion, the cafe owner told us that it was all to celebrate Argentina´s bicentenary, mirroring the huge spectacle that was on offer in Buenos Aires that same week. Naturally we were a bit taken aback, and I pressed him further. ¨Buenos vecinos¨ he said with a shrug. Simple as that really! In the afternoon, we visited the fascinating Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, which is loaded with clothing, jewellry, weapons and hundreds of other artifacts from Mayan, Incan, Aztec and various other lesser-known American civilisations. That evening, still exhausted from our efforts in Pucon, we continued in the vein we had begun, chilling on the sofa with some chinese leftovers and a film!

The next day, our luck with running into national holidays and festivals continued, and we were grateful re. our earlier decision to delay exploring the city by a day in favour of junk food. As we stepped out into the dazzling sunshine, the city was simply buzzing, pulsating to the rythms of song, dance and lively chatter. The square behind the beautiful Palacio de la Moneda in particular was jam packed with people, and as we made our way through the jostling crowd, it took us a moment to realise that every single one of them was standing in perhaps the largest queue I have ever set eyes on. Queuing! We were amazed, and endevoured to find out what on earth could make all these people stand calmly in line all day long. Eventually, I approached a soldier, evidently on security duty, who told me that on this day every year, all governmental and presidential buildings and palaces are open to the public from dawn till dusk. That would just about explain it. I can easily imagine similar bedlham in the streets of London were Buckingham Palace ever to open its doors! After a few hours wandering and happy snapping, we made our way to Santiago´s best mirador or lookout spot, Cerro San Cristobal. A short train ride up this 800m hill, smack bang in the middle of the city, provides stunning views of the whole metropolis, entirely surrounded by soaring, snow-capped peaks. Add a fantastic carnival atmosphere into the bargain as we forced our way through throngs of street performers, musicians and food stalls, and it made for a wonderful spot to sit and watch the sun go down. Plus we got some stunning shots of the sunset and Santiago´s shimmering nighttime expanse.

Our final day in Santiago was eagerly anticipated. We were finally going to do some South American wine tasting! We booked our trip with our hostel, who to my delight were offering trips to perhaps Chile´s best known winery, that of Concha y Toro and the famous Casillero del Diablo. The tour itself was short, but fascinating. We were taken through charminly quaint colonial gardens (apparently designed to reflect the fashion in Victorian England at the time), into seemingly endless fields of vines, ripening in the bright winter sunshine, and down into dark, humid cellars where rows upon rows of oak barrels sat untouched for years, waiting for their contents to mature. Then came the best part, the tasting! We were offered samples of Chardonnay, Merlot and a deliciously musty Cabernet straight from the Casillero del Diablo. Once the tour had ended, we simply couldn´t leave straight away, and decided to treat ourselves to a further sampler platter from the winery´s fancy restaurant, complete with a suitably expensive cheese selection as an accompaniment. We left content that we had had our money´s worth, and, a little beyond tipsy, made our way back to the city centre to catch our overnight bus to the far north, and into the heart of the Atacama.

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Comments

[dad]

very exciting...particularly liked the last sentence! much love dadxx