South American Adventure Part 11: Day 20

Day 20 – Thursday, February 16th – Santiago, Chile

We awoke to a beautiful morning, the sunbeams streaming over the Andes mountains across the valley. 

A good night’s sleep helped everyone, which made the mood for breakfast rather jolly. The Sheraton offered an expansive pool-side breakfast, with American-style food (scrambled eggs, pancakes, bacon, etc.) and European-style food (sliced meats and cheeses). They also had several self-serve machines to make espresso drinks (lattes and their ilk). And one large container of regular, hot coffee. (This recalled a story that our guide Claudio told us a few days ago in the Lake District: Chileans like Nescafé, which he said really means “no es café” or “this is not coffee”).

Mike had done some research on walking tours offered in Santiago (there are several) and we had to meet the Free Tour Santiago guide in front of the Cathedral at the Plaza de Armas at 10:00AM. Thanks to my reconnaissance work the prior night, we walked down to the Metro, got a Metro card for Mike and Chuck, then headed west on the #1 line to Baquedano, where we connected to the #5 line to Plaza de Armas.

The Metro system is very modern: like Montréal, it runs on rubber tires. In fact, the stations and layout seem very reminiscent of that system. Some lines have newer cars without doors between them, making for a very open and bright interior. There are five lines, and you just need to go in the direction of the line’s end-point (very much like Paris). The fares vary based on time of day. Standard non-rush hour fares are 660 pesos, or about US $1. You only need to swipe upon entry (it’s not a distance-based fare system like BART or the Washington Metro), so that means your Bip! card could be used for more than one person (as Allan and I did).

We arrived at Plaza de Armas, a beautiful, large shady square in Centro (Downtown). Like other similarly-named plazas we’ve encountered in Chile, the square was surrounded by fine examples of late 19^th century architecture, in various pastel colors. There were also plenty of stray dogs, a known issue in this city. But few of these dogs looked unhealthy; they just seemed to lack owners.

Prior to 10:00 we met our guide Felipe, an engaging young man who spoke English with several different accents (sometimes he would use hard “r”s like Americans, other times “o”s like the British). Felipe’s normal profession is actor (he’s done stage, film, and TV), and February is his slowest month for work (mid-summer). Chuck and I visited the nearby public bathroom. They charged 500 pesos each (78 cents) for entry, but what you got was a clean, well-lit space with a smiling attendant. There have been many times I would have loved to have access to a public facility like this! – “It’s a privilege to pee!” - AFK

Before the tour started, we ducked into the Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago, which started construction in 1748 and completed in 1800 (the façade wasn’t completed until 1906). The large church had dark, cool interior featuring a beautiful painted ceiling, as well as a bright, ornate altar. There was also a stunning side-chapel painted in white and pastel blue. And surprisingly, there was no entrance fee.  Despite all the earthquake activity since its construction, the Cathedral appeared to be in excellent shape.

At 10:10, the tour started. Our group comprised about thirty people, a mix of ages and even some native non-English speakers (a few people from Switzerland). Felipe told us the history of Santiago, including the Mapuche natives who lived in this area. The Spanish arrived in the early 16^th century, and by 1541 this had become the heart of the Spanish settlement. By the statue of Pedro de Valdivia, a Spanish conquistador, we learned that he had escaped Peru with a mistress (she was disguised as a servant) and set up shop in Santiago. Thus modern Chile was born.

Felipe pointed out the other beautiful buildings in the square, including the Correo Central (Central Post Office) which was originally the city governor’s office. Next to it was the Museo Histórico Nacional and its clock tower. Further down the street was the Municipalidad de Santiago (City Hall). In the bright morning light, these buildings were radiantly exquisite.

From the Plaza de Armas, our group walked over to the front of the Museo de Arte Pre-Colombino, which Felipe told us houses an excellent collection of pre-Colombian Art. One of the stray dogs, a big black something or other, followed us on our route. When Felipe would pause and talk to us, the dog would plunk himself down in the middle. It was very sweet. – It really was J - AFK

We continued our walk through the busy downtown streets, seeing the Old Congress Building (the Congress got moved to Valparaiso by Pinochet several decades ago and the new building is nowhere as grand) and the Supreme Court Building.

Our next stop was at the Palacio de La Moneda, which despite its name, houses the President’s offices. The ornate neoclassical building was designed by an Italian architect in the late 18^th century and was originally the official mint. On September 11, 1973, the Chilean Air Force bombarded the Palacio at the request of the Army. Their goal was to kill the first elected socialist president in the Americas, Salvador Allende, who had refused to leave office. Allende died that day (either by his own bullet or by several shots), and General Pinochet became the leader of Chile for the next 18 years. Felipe told us of how his own family survived those scary days of the military coup, and all that followed. One wonders if similar times aren’t in store for us…

It was a great day for walking through the tree-lined streets and broad boulevards. I never suspected that Santiago would be as beautiful (and just as European feeling) as Buenos Aires. Our group headed into narrower Calle Nueva York (New York Street), which felt surprisingly like Wall Street in Manhattan. In fact, it was designed this way, because the ornate Santiago Stock Exchange was located here (as well as the Union Club, bastion of the moneyed class males).

Along the route, I asked Felipe why his English was so good. He said it was because he attended the Grange School in Santiago, which features English-speaking teachers along with Spanish-speaking teachers. He also has an eleven year old daughter, and I wonder if she’s as charming as her papi….

On the way to the Teatro Municipal (Opera House), Felipe encouraged us to try a Mote con Huesillo from a vendor’s cart. According to Wikipedia, the drink is a “non-alcoholic beverage consisting of a sweet clear nectar like liquid made with dried peaches (huesillo) cooked in sugar, water and cinnamon, and then once cooled mixed with fresh cooked husked wheat (mote).” In practice, the vendor put the mote (which looked like small kernels of corn) into the plastic cup first, then a peach slice, followed by a several large ladles of the liquid. A spoon was provided to eat the soaked peach slice and the huesillo. I, of course, volunteered to buy one and report back (the smallest size cost about US$ 1). The drink was very sweet, but the mote had no flavor of its own. Still and all, it was refreshing. But did I mention sweet?

Before the group would move on to the next stop, Felipe would have a wrap-up sentence as the lead-in for the next destination that would end with “….and it’s in this direction!” I’m sorry we didn’t record it, because it was simultaneously dramatic and endearing.

We climbed up the street bordering the beautiful Santa Lucia Hill before we arrived at the swank, tree-lined neighborhood of Barrio Lastarria. It reminded us of the shadier, quieter parts of Greenwich Village: chic, but subtle. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant named Mulato (José Victorino Lastarria 307), where they had a deal: no entrée was more than 2,500 pesos and could be served and completed in the 30-minute window allotted by the tour company. We enjoyed an excellent empanada pino (the Chilean version of the empanada, stuffed with ground beef, onions, raisins, black olives, and hard-boiled eggs) along with water flavored with sliced apples and oranges. It was here that Mike and Chuck enjoyed their very first Pisco Sours!

Refreshed and revitalized, we continued our walk through the beautiful neighborhood until we come to the Museo Bellas Artes, the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts. The building, which opened in 1910, is a Neoclassical Second Empire design, with some Art Nouveau touches. You could plunk this building down in any city and it would convey “Art Museum”. They were also working on restoring large sections of the building’s exterior.

(One thing to keep in mind about this tour: we saw lots of places, but didn’t go into any of them. It provided a way to get oriented to the city and select places to return to).

We walked through the leafy Parque Forestal, which was lined by attractive apartment buildings and was filled with lots of those stray dogs. It was a hot day (why I wore jeans, I’ll never know), and the park provided a respite from the heat. The park was large and appeared, like most of the city, well maintained. We saw very little garbage on the streets, although there was a fair amount of graffiti in places.

When we reached Plaza Italia, we headed north across the Mapocho River into the Barrio Bellavista. This was quite a change, as it became grungier and more chaotic. This was the district where college students hung out and was more like the 6^th and 7^th Avenue faces of Greenwich Village (noisy and filled with stores and eating establishments). In the midst of this was a beautiful outdoor mall (Patio Bellavista, Calle Constitucion 30) with nice restaurants and shops.

Our final stop was outside the Santiago home of famed Chilean poet, diplomat and Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, Pablo Neruda. It was here that Felipe summed up his tour nicely with the story of Neruda. Since the tour was tip-based only, we made sure he was well rewarded for his excellent efforts.

Since we were already there, we toured the house, built by Neruda in the early 1950s for his mistress, and later wife and keeper of the flame, Matilde. Neruda certainly had an interesting life, being a diplomat stationed in Rangoon, Barcelona, and Buenos Aires. His poems have been famous the world over for decades. You can read the details in Wikipedia.

He named the house La Chascona, after Matilde’s curly red hair (chascona is a Spanish Chilean word meaning “wild mane of hair”). House isn’t the right word, as it was more like a multi-level complex of buildings. Neruda liked all things nautical, and there were touches throughout the house that brought this to life. For example, the dining room was long and low, with a narrow long table that made one feel they were aboard a sailing vessel. I have to thank our Seattle neighbor Valerie for recommending that we visit this house. It was fascinating, and the audio tour made the separate parts of the house feel coherent.

After we were done with touring the house, we were tired. After all, it was a lot of walking in the heat. We stopped back at the Patio Bellevista for some excellent gelato (and Allan had a fruit smoothie) and thought we’d take the funicular up San Cristobal Hill. But the line was long and we decided to walk back across the river to the Baquedano Metro station and take the subway back to our neighborhood (the closest stop was Pedro de Valdivia – anyone see a common thread here?).

We napped for a few hours, then returned to the Providencia neighborhood looking for a good restaurant for dinner. The prior night I had come across some nice restaurants on the Calle Orrego Luco, and as we walked down this street and checked them out, Mike suggested we go just a little further. And were we glad we did! We ended up at the French-inspired Le Flaubert (Calle Orrego Luco 125). The senior waiter Oscar beckoned us inside, and we had a spacious table on the back patio (though still covered).

We easily had the second-best meal of the trip (Don Julio in Buenos Aires being the best). For starters, I had a tangy gazpacho, Allan had serrano ham and melon, Chuck had rillette of duck, and Mike had the ceviche. All were excellent. For the mains, I had sliced beef with peppercorns (Lomo Robespierre), Allan had a shrimp curry, and Mike and Chuck had filets of beef (and shared a salad with shrimp). For dessert, Allan and I shared an excellent mousse au chocolat. It was a marvelous end to a marvelous day.