La Moneda
Trip Start
Sep 05, 2006
1
22
33
Trip End
Sep 04, 2007
Santiago,
Chile
Monday, January 29, 2007
As my friends (who were really the only reason why I was staying in Santiago as I have been a bit disenchanted with the city´s size, dirt and pollution) all got ready to go to their first day of class, I smiled to myself knowing that my only agenda for the day was to find a cup of coffee and maybe visit the only thing in Santiago I had been interested in seeing, the palace La Moneda (the governmental seat of Chile- think the White House of Chile).
So I went and collected my friend Julian and following the hollow call of our stomachs, we went in search of a cafe. There over lattes, we set an agenda for the day 1. coffee 2. La Moneda 3. find him a hotel room for he and his girlfriend Lara, who was scheduled to arrive the following day.
The coffee went straight to our brains and we were jabbering at lightning speed, hardly listening to each other as we walked toward La Moneda. While there is no organized tour of the palace, they do search your bag, scan you through the metal detector and then allow you to pass through the two spacious, immaculately clean courtyards on your way out of the palace. And ¨pass¨ through is exactly what was allowed. When we got within three feet of the dozens of benches that lined the walls of the courtyard we were firmly reprimanded by a rather grumpy guard who told us that the palace was ¨solo para pasear.¨
Heads between our legs, we kept walking and came across another guard, who instead of harboring the custom ¨don´t mess with me¨ kind of look that adorned the majority of the faces of the fancily uniformed ¨carabineros¨, was displaying a rather warm and inviting smile. So we started talking to him, asking questions about the uniforms and why we couldn´t sit on the bench and as this guard also just so happened to be devastatingly handsome, I have to admit that a series of shamelessly flirtatious remarks followed.
I asked him if we could meet ¨La Presidenta¨and he said to come back at 6:00 the next evening and he´d give us a tour. Since Lara wasn´t going to arrive until the following day, we asked if we could postpone until Friday. He obliged and I gave him my number (only to confirm! ) and we passed through the rest of the courtyard and onto the exit rambling excitedly about meeting the President.
We came back on Friday (and this time I´d actually showered and didn´t look like a truck had hit me on the way there) and were greeted by him at the door. This time, however, they didn´t check our bags or scan us through the metal detectors, in fact, we walked up in there like we owned the place!
We started the tour at the cathedral, where he let us play the organ (and he played it himself) and then moved through the palace to see where the President exits the premises and the location where the last president before the dictatorship, Salvador Allende, died during the storming of the Palace in 1973. After the bombings they rebuilt the places where they palace had been bombed out, but left some of the old bricks in that exact spot to intermingle with the new ones to symbolize the reunification and blending of the two governments.
Next we went to the Montt-Vegas room, convienently named so because of the 2 giant portraits of the ex-Chilean presidents Manuel Montt and (I forgot his first name) Vegas on the opposite walls. This was the room from which the president addresses the nation and we got to stand on her podium and touch the ¨most beautiful flag in Chile¨(as explained by our guard) that presided behind. Then we proceeded to go to the Bernardo O´Higgens room where she signs important documents and we got to sit the President and Vice President´s chairs and take pictures while the suave guard pulled a couple of flowers out of the vases for Lara and I.
authorized personel only...!
At that point, all I could think was that this was soo much cooler than the Senator´s tour of the White House. First of all you have to know a Senator and/or Representative and then you can get tickets for a White House tour of one of the wings and visit about 6 rooms from behind roped barriers. You stand in line for days, go through dozens of security measures that stop just short of a urine sample and blood test and still don´t get to hang out in the Lincoln Bedroom. Needless to say, going to the Press Room and sitting in his chair definitely isn´t included...
(While it could have just been a line) He told us that we were the first foreigners that he had ever taken on the tour and that they only open up the palace once a year to the public for a tour similar to the one I described in the White House. As the guards work in 28 hour shifts there, he had cut into his allotted sleep time to show us around. In short, we were all in awe and took an absurd amount of photos. I guess maybe Santiago isn´t so bad afterall...
