After a long day of travel from Guadalajara on a 6:00 AM flight to Mexico City, and ultimately to Santiago arriving around 10:00 PM local time (three hours ahead of Mexico). The flights were easy and we arrived in good shape. Tomas picked us up at the Santiago airport and off we went to our hotel in a beautiful part of town.
The Park Plaza Santiago is a very nice hotel, near shops, restaurants, and lots to do. However, we were tired and ready to take a nice sleep. Breakfast in the dining room was okay, although nothing to shout about. Still, it was nice to have decents food (especially after the mediocre food on Aeromexico!).
Our guide for today, Yamina, and her driver, Mauricio, picked us up at 8:30 to begin our tour. Both of them showed their expansive knowledge of the city and made the tour very interesting. We drove around the many neighborhoods, including high end and bohemian areas. The architecture of many of the government buildings (some were formerly private properties) has a definitive French influence in the central part of the city. As we drove around, it felt as though you could be in any European capitol. With a beautiful blue sky and perfect temperatures, walking around was heaven.
The Andes are on the east side of the city, with minimal snow visible, especially considering that November is the end of spring. The mountains loom over the city, creating a border north and south, with Argentina on the other side. Santiago boasts about 8 million people, a far cry from 2 million prior to the COVID years. Compared to the rampant inflation in Argentina, Chile is calm, well run, and experiencing minimal inflation. We were told that people from Buenos Aires even come to Chile just to shop for groceries!
We enjoyed viewing the green areas, lots of flowers, and walking in the Plaza de Armas and other plazas around the government buildings. The main church on the Plaza is a monument to Catholicism, and very impressive. Surprisingly, the stained glass was rather plain while the interior was filled with gold and silver decoration. When we left, we passed an important mural featuring Gabriela Mistral, an educator and poet, earning her the honor of receiving Chile’s first Nobel prize for literature in 1945.
From there, we stopped at the Neptune Terrazza, with its beautiful fountain that gave the many pidgeons a welcome respite. There were not many tourists but almost everywhere, there were hundreds of students visiting the many sites in the city. After a drive up Cerro (Hill) Santa Lucia for a beautiful view of the city, we took the cable car up Cerro San Cristobal, two of the better known hills to see the Virgin Mary statue that is visited by hundreds (or thousands) of tourists all year around. At the top, there was an amazing view of Santiago.
The tour was over around 1:00 PM, so time for lunch. Mauricio suggested a restaurant around the corner from our hotel. Giratorio Restaurant sits at the top of a building that houses several restaurant and rotates to view every part of the city. The menu was varied and catered to an upscale clientele. We normally share an entree and found the perfect dish to order. The shrimp with gnocchi in a pesto sauce, burrata cheese, and sun-dried tomatoes was definitely a winner. It came with homemade focaccia for dipping into the pesto sauce. We also ordered a local beer, Astral, which is from Patagonia, and a Pisco Sour, a special drink that you find all over Chile. Both were a wonderful compliment to the food.
There was a pianist to serenade us as we rotated very slowly. We saw window washers scaling the tallest building in South America (yikes!) and had to hold our breath. Time to go, but we had one issue to deal with. Jim uses a travel CPAP machine at night and he forgot the humidifier that keeps him from drying his nasal passages. It kept him from having a good sleep last night. Going online, we found exactly the store we needed around the corner from the restaurant. And, fortunately, they had the humidifier he needed. What were the chances??
Once back at the hotel, we both crashed. By the way, WiFi isn’t available everywhere as it is in most cities. Using Google maps to get around requires some pre-planning. I ordered an eSim but so far, it hasn’t worked. Now, I have to get the many pictures into this entry. I still haven’t figured out how to insert videos. Anyone know WordPress better than me? See you tomorrow…