Advertisement
The Virgen Above the Smog
Looking down over SantiagoWe arrived in Santiago, frankly, expecting to see a very dirty city from what we have heard about the pollution, but we were very pleased and surprised by how clean and modern it was. We got straight off the bus, on to the tube which was clean and efficient, straight into the centre and checked into our hostel in about 20mins.
We decided to start our stay with a free walking tour of the city, it was really imformative and took us passed a lot of important builings and sites (Main square, cathedral which has been rebuilt 5 times over the years due to earthquakes, congress which is currently closed due to earthquake damage, judicial court currently being repaired due to earthquake damage, government house which was rebuilt after being completely destroyed by Pinochets bombers, santiago stock exchange, theater which is currently being repaired after earthquake damage, barrio bellavista and lastaria and Pablo Nerudas house).
Our guide taught us about "coffee with legs". Chile doesn´t grow coffee and it has always been a problem to import it in the past, they have lived with horrible Nescafe for ages and therefore not really developed a cafe culture. About 20 years
ago a local entrepreneur decided he would start up a chain off coffee shops and to get people to come in and buy the horrible coffe he would employ waitresses wearing very short skirts "Coffee with legs" was born! Since then coffee with spice has been introduced by a competitor where the waitresses dress up in different costumes, nurse, Police officer, bikini (you get the idea), then another competitor upped the stakes even further with coffee with "happy minute" where the waitresses lock the doors take thier clothes off and do a little dance for a minute! All these places just serve Nescafe, no alcohol and they are only allowed to open in the buisness district between 9am and 9pm, very funny especially in Chile which is soooo conservative.
After the walking tour we walked up Cerro San Cristobal to see the the city from above, now from here you can see the famous smog, a brown fug blurring the images of everything below watched over by the virgen.
Next day we took a bus to Valparaiso, 1 1/2 hours away on the coast, famous for it´s architecture and its artists and poets. We decided to do another
free walking tour as the one in Santiago had been so good, and this guide was just as good and very imformative. He told us all about the cerial killer saint ( a bit of a robin hood character) who still has followers today 200 years after his execution, and the bar which people thought the devil lived in as so many people who went there at night never made it home, a rumour made even stronger when an earthquake revealed a cave under the bar, this street is called the gateway to hell now. Valparaiso is a maze of streep narrow streets leading up and down many different hills, most accessible via funiculars which are all very old some over 100 years and near vertical in ascent, not for the faint hearted! It is a riot of colour also, and this is why it was granted unesco status for the unique way that the people here decorated thier houses with bright colours and murals, grants are available from the government now so this can be maintained.
Last day in Santiago and we got up early to visit the fish market which was very interesting, a huge variety of
fish and shell fish all on offer, muscles the size of my hands, sea urchin, fish of many varieties all looking very fresh surrounding a fruit and veg market and some small restaurants.
We went to the fine arts museum which had some temporary exhibits of modern art, my favourite being the vinal prints of Valparaiso, the artist himself was there and you could see exactly how he worked, it was a wonderful exhibit. The permant art on display was also wonderful, bronze, marble statues, paintings from different eras mostly chilean, and it was a beautiful building worth seeing in its own right.
After a quick lunch stop we headed on to the recently opened Museum of Human Rights a very brave and open exhibit of the atrosities carried out during the Pinochet dictatorship which lasted from 1973 to 1988. This features first hand accounts of what some people went through during this time and gives the hard facts about how many were exhiled, prisioned, tortured and executed and what lengths the Junta went to cover it all up. One of the most shocking relevations was the amount of children that were affected many of them "disapeared", the
youngest recorded torture was of a boy of 13! It also explains Americas efforts to destabalise the government leading up to the coup and the Juntas joint working with Argentinian, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan dictators of that time to find and eliminate opponents. Quite a brutal show case of events especially being in such recent history, I left not being able to look at people the same way, the bravery of those who openly rebelled and protested about the Junta was quite inspiring.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0564s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
karen squibb
non-member comment
Just getting better and better !!
Well there sounds to be very little chilling out and relaxing on your trip !!! You are always on the go - I suppose you just can't wait to take the next step on your adventure - I certainly look forward to reading about them - and love the photo's. The narrow house was certainly interesting - perhaps we need a few of those over here - don't look like they take up much space !! Keep safe, take care and enjoy !!!