Full day 2 in the Capital

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I queried Kate for a brief description of life in the Capital city of Chile. Now , we only spent 2 1/2 days here and I can guarantee you that without a guide, we will have missed much of this city's offerings.



We did put 27,000 steps on her Fitbit on our first full day!



Kathy will see Santiago as European in its layout. We felt an excellent public transit system which will carry you to a number of people gathering plazas. The major arteries , running parallel to the river are wide , expansive , divided highways. We spent the Friday and Saturday in very heavy foot, bicycle and vehicular traffic.



Many parks with great pedestrian access, heavily treed and with beautiful gardens.

Lots of places to sit back and people watch. We never felt threatened and we did transit some unsavoury barrios, though mostly in the daytime and early evening.



She would comment on the number of stray dogs in every area, not bothering the people, nor being bothered by them.



Coffee bars are never more than a block away , with Starbucks , like New York City, everywhere. Some might question the adventure of going to a Starbucks, but they always have a familiar product, WIFI and most importantly clean washrooms!



We did not find the architecture matching the standards of so many European city's. I guess jaded by previous experiences. Our daughter would always comment, "it has a Plaza , a Church and eateries, whenever we asked about a city. So Santiago has fewer Plaza's less opulent Churches with the same eateries.





We climbed the hill to San Cristobal, the highest viewpoint in the surrounding area. 800 metres in elevation and I think around 4 k on the route we took. Very , very busy at the lookout.



Decided to ride the Finicula back down the hill which was a good skit. It's like an extreme Cable Car , San Francisco style.



Kathy feels Santiago is not setup as a Tourist destination , most of the tourist activities involve areas outside the city.



Prices are inline with what we would be paying in Canada, except of course wine and beer. In an establishment , the cheapest beer I could drink was Cristal which came in at 2300 CHP, about 4.50 CAD. Kate's allergic to onions, so we had our hostal write a note for her to provide when eating out. There are not many things she can eat, and although some English is spoken, it is difficult to order. So we found a corner store which has meat/cheese/beer/empanadas and cheesecake!



Oh ! nice fruit here at the street vendors. Beautiful strawberries.

So we went to a number of markets. Fish market, clothing market, fresh food market , Artisan market. Who were we kidding, if you had never been to a market in Asia , Europe or India it might be exciting , but always the same. Busy , dirty and few deals.

Just our opinions .



Looking for a bank now, need some more peso's



Hundreds of young people, well girls , practicing their dance moves in the area of the University dorms. Some very obnoxious protesters and a Magician enchanting a large group of young children. Much larger police presence this afternoon than we had previously seen



Picked up 1l of beer , an empanadas, which would have sent Kate to the Emergency, some mixed veggies, ham and cheese, buns and 2 atrocious desserts for 17 CAD.

Yeah baby!



Sleepie time now.



Cheers

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Photos

Our Deli
Cheesecake!

The River
Lots of Graffiti , not much river!

San Cristobal
This worked off a few calories

Cute Depiction
Only wall we could find without graffiti, or urban art, which was everywhere.