Santiago Friday Evening and Saturday

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Driving into the city from the bucolic countryside on a Friday afternoon during rush hour reminded me that this vacation was designed to encompass a lot of different experiences. This experience, a nasty rush hour with buses "blocking the box," horns honking, motor scooters driving between stopped cars and pedestrians crossing in the middle of the street, was not at all different from any big city's Friday afternoon experience. By the time we arrived at the hotel we had adjusted and were in full urban mode. We were late on our schedule so we just dropped our stuff at the hotel and got back in the van for our visit to one of Pablo Neruda's homes. If you're not familiar with Neruda, you should be. He was a Nobel Prize winning poet who wrote beautifully and the poems seem to translate well into English. My friend Barry sent me this link: http://hellopoetry.com/poem/9912/body-of-a-woman/. Romantic. Sexy. The house, one of I think four that he had, was fascinating, not just for the house, which was confusing and not especially nice, but for what it tells (or what we interpreted it told) about Neruda. Neruda was married three times and the move from one wife to the next contained an overlap; married then mistress then divorce then married the mistress, then new mistress, then divorce, then married the mistress. And the final mistress, Matilda, seemed to be the love of his life. She was all over this house. Photos, paintings, her stuff, and even the metal bars on the windows designed as a logo between for the two of them; P and M. But the house was also all about Neruda. The interior of the house is like the inside of a boat. The rooms are small by today's standards and the furniture is all furniture that is compact. Many of the rooms were paneled with wood like a saloon in a sailing ship. There are four bars in the house so that Neruda and his guests were never too far from his drinks. And he was a collector, or maybe even a hoarder, of everything from everywhere he traveled. Russian dolls that stack within one another, colored drinking glasses from France, paperweights from who knows where, tchhotkes like ceramic piggy banks and small bowls and figurines and, of course art. He bought a most of this stuff at auction or it was given to him. There are a lot of bad paintings from Chilean artists and elsewhere; the three most famous of which are a Diego Rivera portrait of Matilda, with two heads supposedly symbolizing her two sides - weird and not very well done, a Matisse ceramic relief portrait of Matilda, very generic for a Matisse ceramic - but I recognized it as a Matisse and Fran thought it was a Picasso - I hardly ever win those, and a Leger portrait of Matilda, which I thought was another Matisse and Fran recognized as a Leger. The place was packed, stuffed, claustrophobically stuffed with stuff. He also collected big sculptures of Jesus, Mary, et al that he bought at auction from churches when they sold them after earthquakes, floods or other events that damaged them significantly. They are spread around too. There are also photos of Neruda with all the famous communists of the day. I know this description is not doing justice to the place and certainly to the genius of the man. But it's the best I can do.

We stopped for a drink then dinner at an interesting restaurant, one of the highest rated restaurants in Santiago. We are getting the idea that Santiago is not an exciting culinary destination and this was confirmed by our lunch on Saturday; good or ok, but nothing remarkable.

On Saturday morning (I'm writing this on Saturday afternoon) we had a tour of the city. I wish I could find something especially interesting to write about our tour or the city, but I'd be stretching my observation skills and/or my interpretation of what we saw. My conclusion, based on a half-day of riding around in the van and walking through squares, recognizing that this is grossly unfair, but it's all that I have, is that Santiago is like most cities, cleaner and more affluent than a lot. I'll try to point out some things that may have some interest.

We saw the most affluent sections of the city, starting with the Jewish section. Yes there is a Jewish section, not a ghetto but there is a Jewish community and while not exclusive and not the only place Jewish people live, it's an area populated mostly by Jews. It's Saturday so all the retail in the area are closed. The houses are nice but not extravagant or ostentatious. What is interesting is that every one had walls and gates. The gates were spiked and the walls were topped with razor wire and/or thin electrical wires which Alwin said were to electrocute invaders. Alwin explained that all homes of rich people were protected that way. It's not just a Jewish thing. Then, after a drive to the center of the city we walked the squares, heard about this building and that, saw how colonial Chile tried to throw off the Spanish influence in the early 1800s by adopting the architecture of revolutionary France. A lot of the buildings looked like bad reproductions of Parisan buildings including a smaller direct copy of the Petit Palais in Paris. Where was something uniquely Chilean? We ended up at a seafood restaurant that was, as mentioned before, good, but not memorable. Oh, we also saw a bride and groom being photographed for a wedding at the Presidential Offices. I'm not going to comment on the photo. You can make your own caption but I have to mention that this seemed to be a typical bride and groom. They look quite happy, don't they. Warms my heart. Oh, and I'd be remiss, at least in Fran's eyes, if I didn't talk about the street dogs. They are all over and they are all homeless. But, they are well-fed and do not appear to be abused. They are not especially friendly nor are they aggressive. They just are there and people feed them. The government has a program to sterilize them and sometimes they just disappear. Nobody asks too many questions. Fran likes them.

The most interesting thing about this morning and this includes our long car rides from earlier was hearing Alwin's take on demographics. Whenever we travel I'm always interested in the local take on things American. In Santiago there seems to be an Americanization trend; clothes, music and unfortunately (my take) food. KFC, Burger King, McDonalds are everywhere plus recent "high end" invaders, Applebee's and TGI Fridays. As opposed to France, for example, there is no protest against shitty American food. We noticed that there are very few Black people in Santiago. Alwin explained that this is because the slave trade was centered in Brazil and Columbia and the cost of bringing slaves south to Chile was too much. On indigenous peoples; the conquistadors didn't kill them in battle; influenza and measles wiped out almost all of them. The people that we see on the streets that look Indian are Peruvians. Chileans look down upon them for being dirty ("they drop their garbage on the ground, "they cook outside and that is unsanitary, even the Peruvians that are willing to work at minimum wage can't do the jobs well enough"). The Chileans are always in a fierce competition with Argentina for everything and so of course, the Chileans hate the Argentinians and vice versa. And the Chileans don't care much for the Bolivians, their neighbors on the northeast of the city. It's the same wherever we go, very tribal.

More tomorrow from the museums and from Valparasio on the coast.

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Comments

[TOM]

Great Update
Hi Team Horvitz, Carolyn said the same about Santiago; lackluster at best! Thanks for your update, and I hope you find exceptional wine soon! OH, The Grapes of Pleasure! With Love & Respect, Tom & Carolyn ( Whisper sneaked in too!)