Santiago

The park at the top of Cerro
San Cristobal is dedicated to the
Immaculate Conception

Santiago is not a particularly pretty city.  Even the guide books go out of their way to warn you about keeping your expectations low.  It is, however, a big city, and we did eventually find neighborhoods that were nice.  For example, I would definitely go back to Lastarria and any of the neighborhoods in the northeast.  But in general, the architecture is not inspiring, the only green spaces are along the river, and the streets are not particularly clean or attractive.  I bet it’s a lot prettier in the winter because the city is surrounded by mountains that are just brown and dusty right now.  But they are probably spectacular covered in snow.

We only spent 1 of our 4 days in Chile exploring the city itself, and still felt like it was too long.  First, there was a day trip to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.  Then it was 2 days in wine country.  And finally, on our last day in Chile, we stayed in Santiago. 

But we did spend every evening in Santiago and generally ate really well thanks to Sarita’s restaurant research.  (If you ever go back to Santiago, we hit up Aqui esta Coco, Boca Navis, and Lastarria, and would recommend all of them, especially the last two.) The nighlife in Bella Vista was impressive, both from the sheer number of people out and about and for the upscale and expansive Patio BellaVista.  The sophisticated W hotel hosted us for drinks one evening as we watched the sun set from its rooftop lounge.  

The Andes at sunset from the W rooftop

Sipping Pisco Sours
at the W

A band played in front of the Univeristy at night
in Bella Vista

Closed for strike

The well-known and beautiful Bellas Artes (Fine Arts) Museum was closed the while we were in Santiago because the workers were on strike.  The cathedral we beautiful at the foot of the pleasant Palace des Armas, where one of the striking workers was yelling at anybody who would listen.  We walked through the huge seafood –filled Mercado Centrale, we wandered along Parque Forestal (a pretty park along the river), rode the funicular up to Cerro San Cristobal and gazed up at the statue of St Mary, who looks over all of Santiago.  On the way to the Cerro, we wandered through the Bella Vista neighborhood, which looked completely different during the daytime than it did the night before.   My favorite site was probably the Sainta Lucia, a small hill covered in a well-designed, peaceful park crowned by a tiny castle. 

The view of Santiago from
Cerro San Cristobal

The castle on top of
Santa Lucia 

In the cathedral

The highlight of our stay in Santiago, and Chile in general, were the people.  Every Chilean we met was warm, outgoing, and eager to practice their English.  In fact, I think we learned as much about Santiago from the taxi drivers as we did from reading the guidebook.  Our first cab driver took it upon himself to point out the highlights of the city as we cruised along the main drag by the water on the way to dinner on our first evening. Another cab driver took us back from the bus terminal and made sure we heard all the dance music (read Latin and Regetone) he could pump through the speakers at painful decibles.  A different cab driver took it on himself to instruct us on the money they use in Chile.  (which is colorful and has a lot more zeros than I’m used to seeing!).  Getting a Santiago education through cab drivers was entertaining, especially because we were communicating via our limited Spanish, their limited English, with occasional assistance from Google Translate.  One piece of advice: close your taxi doors very very softly to avoid making the taxi drivers cringe.  

We finished our day in Santiago by cooling off back at the W for a couple of hours, taking advantage of the mixologist and high-speed wifi.  Sarita had plenty of time to get back to the airport for her overnight flight.  I moved AirBnB joints and stayed at a shared place where I split a bottle of Chilean wine with our hostes and other guests.  The lady of the house contributed a pear tart to the occasion that was delicious!

Next stop:  Mendoza, Argentina