Santiago: November 2015
Our neighborhood in Santiago.
We are jet-lagged! We arrived in the early afternoon and after a bus, train, and 15 minutes of walking, finally arrived to our host’s home. We were staying with Gilda. A very sweet Chilean woman who lives on her own. We were both so exhausted, but didn’t want to sleep. Instead, we dropped off our bags and headed out for some late lunch. It was Sunday, so just about everything was closed. The only places open were fast food places. Javier and I have decided that American fast food feeds the people of the world on Sundays. Our options were McDonalds, Burger King, and KFC. Nothing sounded appetizing, so we found one restaurant opened and decided to give it a try. It was one of those places that spin while you eat, to give you a view of the city. Now, I have been to one of these places before, but this one seemed exceptionally fast. We both were a little dizzy. Our food was overpriced and horrible. Yes, our first meal in Chile was quite terrible. But seeing as we were starving and tired, we ate it anyway. We would have been better off at Burger King.
Santiago, Chile.
When we returned back to the apartment, it was just past 7pm. My goal was to stay awake until 8pm. We showered and watched TV for as long as we could, when we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer, we went to bed, only to wake up 4 hours later. Actually, I woke up, Javier stayed asleep for another 3 hours. So, at 3am there we were, wide awake. I had already read all of the news I could and started reading a new book. Javier grabbed the computer and started doing some research. At around 4am, I successfully went back to sleep, only to be woken up again 4 hours later by Javier who had been awake the whole time. I hate being jet-lagged.
The dog followed us. Santiago, Chile.
We decided on a free walking tour, of course! This one was really great. Our guide, Franco is a young guy born and raised in Santiago. We learned all about the native people, the Mapuchas, colonial rule, the first democratic election, the coup and subsequent years of living under a dictatorship, and present day. He told us that most of Chile’s current government officials were raised outside of Chile during the years under dictatorship. These people’s families left and moved to north America and Europe, were educated, and returned back to Chile only because of an agreement to hold a democratic election from pressure applied by outside forces. We ate delicious Chilean empanadas in Lastarria, which used to be the ghetto, but is now the bohemian, artisan neighborhood, visited the home of Pablo Neruda, and saw many of the former government buildings from when Santiago was the congressional capital.
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Walking tour. Santiago, Chile.
He pointed out a great ice-cream place, where Javier and I visited after our tour, as well as the “cafe with legs” which are coffee shops that have scantily clad young women serving your coffee with loud club music blasting away- we will be visiting one soon. Our group was attacked by a couple of drunks. Actually, the lady pretended like she was going to hit everyone causing them to flinch and then actually kicked one guy as we were walking away. She left a nice abrasion on his calf. One of the main streets in Santiago is called Av Libertador O’Higgins. When asked about the origins of the street name, we were told that during the Spanish colonization, the only other country that was allowed to send people to live was Ireland since they were also Catholic. We were wondering where all the blonde haired, light eyed, freckle faced people came from! We ended the tour on the other side of the river that was historically a place of debauchery. The undesirables were moved here along with the casinos, cabarets, brothels and bars. In the end, this became the fun half of the city, and now has some of the more expensive houses. I’m not sure what we expected from Santiago, but it has already exceeded our expectations.
Central Station. Santiago.
We only had one more day before heading off to Valparaiso, and we hadn’t slept well the previous night, so we were a little lazy. We didn’t have much planned, so we hopped over to the bus station to buy our tickets to Mendoza, Argentina. We sent Gilda an email asking her to please print out my Argentina visa (eek!) and we ended up at the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Museum of Memory and Human Rights). It’s all about the coup of Salvador Ayende, the take over by Pinochet, and subsequently, the years of living under a dictatorship. The museum is quite extensive and very well done. There are newspaper clippings, letters, photos, drawings, other memorabilia, and many videos. It spotlights the torture and blatant disregard for human life. It dispelled some myths we previously held, and was overall very educational.
Museo. Santiago.
We spent the next couple days in Valparaiso and returned in the evening just to sleep. Gilda had kindly allowed us to keep our backpacks at her place while we went to Valparaiso, which made that whole trip so much easier. She also invited us to stay with her again, if we were passing through Santiago after Patagonia. We really liked her, and apparently, she liked us too! We packed our packs that night and tried to get to bed since we had to be up early the next morning for our 8-hour bus ride across the border into Argentina. Unfortunately, we’re still a bit jet-lagged and Javier was up for most of the night 🙁
To see more pictures of Santiago, click HERE.