Heavenly Bed
Trip Start
May 22, 2005
1
106
107
Trip End
Jan 22, 2006
Santiago,
Chile
Friday, December 30, 2005
We had booked a room at the Four Points Sheraton in the centre of Santiago. Upon arrival we discovered that the Sheraton had a new feature called the "Dream Bed". We looked forward to doing a lot of dreaming. With our room we each received a complimentary drink at the bar. We both tried the famous pisco sour which was invented in Chile. The tasty cocktail is made from grape brandy, lemon juice, egg white and powdered sugar.
We had a few lazy days in Santiago, made all the lazier by the sleeping we did. When we were conscious we spent our time seeing the city.
On our first day we wandered around the modern and impressive downtown core to the beautiful Plaza de Armes. As we were to discover, each South American city is built around its own Plaza de Armes, or central square. We sat for a while amongst the business people, young families and teenagers on summer vacation enjoying the sun and their lunch. Watching other people eat made us hungry so we made our way towards the Mercado Central which is known for its seafood restaurants and fresh fruit. The Mercado is like Granville Island and unfortunately it was also very touristy. The seafood restaurants in the centre of the Mercado looked suspiciously like tourist traps. Instead we found a smaller restaurant tucked away in one of the darker corners of the Mercado. We felt more comfortable when we looked around and saw many locals having their lunch. The kind restaurateur did not understand English, but with the friendly help of some English speaking patrons we were able to make our order. Mel enjoyed a delicious seafood stew--the local specialty--and Paul had a very fresh and crisp piece of pan-fried fish. After lunch we wandered around the city some more and then retired to our dream bed.
The city of Santiago is surrounded by the towering Andes, the second highest mountain range in the world. In order to get a panoramic view of the city we headed to the Parque Metropolitano, a huge municipal park which was conceived and still is considered to be green lung of Santiago. In the centre of the parque is Cerro San Cristóbal or St. Christopher's Hill, which has at its top a 15 metre high white Virgin Mary statute. The summit of the Cerro is 860 metres above sea level and 300 meters above the rest of the city. We briefly considered climbing it on foot but instead opted for a ride in the cable car. Once at the top we enjoyed the full view of Santiago and the surrounding Andean peaks whose heights seemed to mock Santiago's proud tall skyscrapers.
Here are a few observations from our brief stay in Santiago:
1) Because of the historic Spanish influence, Chileans take siesta time very seriously and so the pace of life in Santiago is quite pleasant. Lunches are taken leisurely with friends. On one occasion we witnessed a group of office workers on their lunch break taking the time to sing along with a guitar playing street performer.
2) The subway system in Santiago is impeccably clean and efficient. One particularly good idea we saw at one of the stops is a public library kiosk right in the subway station. Talk about convenience.
3) The average Chilean is very well dressed and you can find very affordable and stylish clothes in the various shopping districts.
4) Chileans take their politics quite seriously and we were visiting during the ramp up to the federal election. Throughout the downtown core we saw very vocal groups of supporters waving large flags trying to garner support for their candidate.
