The day started off with a nice leisurely morning that saw us barely out of the apartment before noon. But in our defence we have come to realize that Latin Americans work/live a slightly different schedule to North America with a late start and late finish to the day. So we figured a tramp around Santiago from 12 to 8 is the just as good as 9 to 5.
Rick's apartment is in the business district, North-west section of Santiago. From his place it is a 3 km hike to the subway system which then provides access to the downtown. With a little bit of our limited spanish and hand signs, we figure out how to pay for the subway and even mange to get some info on the buses for our impending trip to Valparaiso. A quick ride gets us to the historical section of Santiago and we are up on surface. It is now mid day and hot so we are looking for a patio restaurant c/w umbrellas and cervasa's.
As we walk around it is hard not to make a comparison of Santiago to Lima. Santiago is much more orderly, more North America, traffic is nowhere near the volume of Lima, says a lot for a good public transit system, Lima has nothing but buses an d cars. We do see more graffiti on the buildings than Lima, but this might be a reflection on where we traveled in Lima. Smoking in Santiago is much more wide spread than Lima and may be a reflection on the affluence of Chile vs Peru. One final comment there are still a number of stray dogs but no where near as many in Lima and certainly far below the numbers in Cuzco.
Our cervasas/lunch stop is in a street plaza just opposite the La Monda - the presidential palace. The plaza in front of the La Monedo features the largest flag either of us have every seen although it was hanging down as there was no wind to speak of. We had an excellent lunch and were back wandering. We visited the main cathedral in the Plaza de Armas, it always amazes us the amount of work that has gone into churches through out the world. From here we walked over to what we thought was the main market, Mercado, but turned out to be a few shops and a whole bunch of resturants, from here over to the park San Cristobal.
En route to San Cristoblal we found ourselves in an area of patio cafes, due to our need to hydrate we were forced to stop for a cervasas. San Cristobal turned out to be a great visit, it is a park which is built on hill which rise about 800 meters above Santiago. Access to the top of the hill is offered through a venicular in this case call a Funicular. We made the right decision and purchased a return ticket and proceeded up the hill. The view of Santiago was excellent and would be even better if there was not any smog. Smog is a major concern as the city is boxed in on all sides by mountains.
We were off the hill for 6 and on our way back to the business district via the subway with a side stop in the Italian district for a gelato. It was now rush hour in Santiago and ridership was at capacity. It proved most interesting when we were leaving the Tobalaba station (one of the main station in the business district) and we were one of 10 people trying to get out of the station to hundreds entering the station. The classic salmon going upstream. A final 3 km hike and we were on the balcony with a very well deserved beer in our hands.
Phot Notes
1) Statue in Bicentennial park near Rick's apartment
2) La Monedo with flag/flag pole in foreground
3) Julie in Plaza de Armas
4) Bad inside photo of the Cathedral of Santiago
5) Mercado which was more restaurants then shops
6) Dawson at top of San Cristobal Park
7) Looking down the rails of the Venicular which provides access to the top of San Cristobal Park
Cheers
Dawson and Julie
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