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Published: August 15th 2010
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First stop on our South American trip was the city of
Santiago. Unfortunately there is no sign of our Turismo Cocha pick up at the airport and we are swarmed upon by millions of men, sounding like a flock of seagulls chanting ‘cheap, cheap, taxi!’ After numerous attempts to call Turismo Cocha we realise it is useless as we can’t get onto an English operator. We eventually went with a man who spoke half decent English, but we knew we would get ripped off as soon as we stepped into his unmetered Kia - first mistake of the holiday in the first half hour - travelling beautifully. $70 and 25 minutes later we made it to our hotel in the very nice neighbourhood of Providencia. The traffic and driving is somewhat crazy but we were too tired to notice.
Knowing the best way to fend off jetlag is keep moving during the day, we got a map and headed to the
Plaza de Armas, using the metro as it was only 5 stops away. Walking up the pedestrian street Paseo Estado to the massive Plaza, it’s hard not to be impressed with the wealth of the city of Santiago, which
is very busy even in the middle of a weekday. The heat and the pollution also hit me like a tonne of bricks, encapsulated by the
Rio Mapocho or ‘chocolate river’ as it is described by our taxi driver, which makes the Yarra look pristine. After having hot dogs in the Plaza for lunch (man, they were cheap!) we ventured into the stunning
Cathedral Metropolitana. The Catholics sure splashed out on cathedrals in South America, I guess the Spanish had to try hard to convince the locals to become believers and thought nice buildings with a stack of gold might help!
From the Plaza we ventured to the wrong side of the river and were politely told to go back as we could find trouble here. So we did just that and went and sat in the sun in the
Jardin Japones for a bit to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. We then got the metro back to Providencia and had a light dinner near the metro station. We walked back to the hotel along the nice tree lined streets to the sound of cars tooting as peak hour traffic was in full swing. Hmmm, it
certainly isn’t the nicest street in the world!
Our hotel was good though and one of the best things about South America was their cable TV and love of bad US comedy. My favourite was the Sony channel which was like being sent back in a time machine to the early 90s and played all sitcoms from that era, my favourite of which was ‘Married with Children’. Most nights you could find an Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider movie on at least one channel which was gold - and most movies were in English with Spanish subtitles.
We took off on a very, very, very long walk to
Cerro San Cristobal, a giant white Virgin Mary statue in
Parque Metrolopolitano which towers over the city. It was hot, but worth the walk (as the skyrail wasn’t open yet). We got the skyrail back after stopping to admire the hazy views of the city and have a coke. We then walked along the chocolate river back to the plaza for a strange lunch with our ordering reflective of our poor Spanish. I ended up with a hamburger with beans. I struggle to understand the words that people were saying, and when someone asked me the simple question
a que hora, por favor?, it was too fast for me to understand.
After lunch we went to the museum of contemporary art which had lots of Inca and pre-Inca jewellery, pottery, weapons, etc. I was most impressed with the 7 foot tall human figures sculptured out of wood - just like the Easter Island figures. It was a cool break from the head as from there we walked past more nice buildings like the Justice Tribunal and the Presidential Palace near the
Plaza de la Constitution with its many Chilean flags. We then got lost before finding our way back to Providencia for dinner in a pub with a couple of beers outside whilst noting the unusual amount of broken windows in the street. Santiago was a busy city but its pollution and chaos probably didn’t make it a desirable place to live.
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