Santiago Chile

a waiting for the rental car  Waiting for the rental car La Serena

 

 a palm trees santiago

A view santiago

 

Santiago is a very pretty city.  The town is full of parks, huge palm trees, and of course the amazing volcanoes in the distance.  Santiago is situated in a valley, surrounded by the Andes to the east, the Chilean Coastal range to the west,  to the north is the Cordon de Chacabuco, and to the south is the Angostura de Paine, another Andes mountain range.  There are mountains, jagged, snow peaked mountains, wherever you look.  This city of nearly 6 million people, produces a lot of pollution, and because Santiago is in this “bowl” the air quality is generally very poor.  Fortunately when we were there, the air seemed fine and we couldn’t wait to explore. 

Unfortunately, it was Navy Day, a public  holiday commemorating a battle with Peru, and the stores were closed.  After walking around town for awhile, and having a nice lunch on a sidewalk cafe, we decided to head to a major mall not too far away and see a movie.  Night at the Museum had just come to Chile and the kids were anxious to see it.  For some weird reason, two of our favorite things to do in a foreign country is to rent a car and see a movie.  Since we’d already rented the car, it was time to see the movie.

The shopping mall was a modern marvel, combining outdoor casual and upscale restaurants with 3 floors of very upscale shopping.  Both the mall and the movie theater were packed.   People, mostly younger, were everywhere.   It seems Chile has a very young population, and they love to shop.  The showing we wanted to see was sold out, so we waited in a long line to get the next available “english language” showing.   The movie theatre had about 12 movies going at once, and the lines to buy tickets stretched out the door.  It was crazy!  But we had our tickets, enjoyed the show, and enjoyed a great night of people watching.  Santiago people were  friendlier  than we had encountered in the other cities of  Chile, and that made us feel better.  They seemed to be enjoying life more, and why not?  The city was beautiful, they appeared to have money, and there was plenty to spend it on. 

a another cathedral  Cathedral in Santiago

 

a cathedral snatiago Cathedral in Santiago

 

a presidential palace  Presidential Palace

 

The next day, we did the full city tour.  We walked down to see the Presidential palace, and of course a cathedral.  I’ve lost count of how many cathedrals we’ve seen on this trip but I think this was the largest.  After that, we walked and walked and walked some more in the opposite direction, heading towards Cerro San Cristobal Cable car.  This park had several unique features.   We bought a ticket at the base, caught a trolley going up the steep side of the hill, and had our first stop at the Santiago Zoo.  The Zoo was unique in so many ways, from the number and type of animals, to the fact that it was situated on a steep hillside.  It was quite a workout trying to see all the animals.  The conditions at the Zoo were underwhelming, some of the animal cages seemed small, but the kids, who hadn’t been to a zoo in years really enjoyed it.  After the zoo, we again caught the trolley to take us to the top of the hill.  At the top is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary, though we have no idea why.  You get a great view of the city from here, surrounded by beautiful gardens.  When we tired of this, we caught the cable car, which took us across to another hill and then back down into the city.  We had a really great time.  We had a late dinner, then left the Maria Angola and headed to the Holiday Inn at the airport for our last night. 

a view 4

 

another view

 

a virgin mary

 

 

a great group

 

a zoo 3

 

 

 

a zoo        

The Holiday Inn was a really nice hotel.  Our flight was early in the morning and because Santiago’s traffic was so bad, we wanted to be close to the airport so we didn’t have to get up so early.  We couldn’t be any closer than where we were.  Literally, we only had to walk across the street to the airport.  It was great.  The hotel was very nice too, and since we showed up without a reservation, she was happy to give us a discount.  I’m anxious to see if this trick works all the time!

Elqui to LaSerena to Santiago

A view from Maria Angola  View from our hotel window in Santiago

After 2 nights at Elqui Valley,  we headed back to La Serena.   Elqui Valley was truly beautiful, but remote, and we have had enough remoteness on the boat.  By leaving Elqui early in the morning, we were able to drive back to La Serena, return the car and buy our ticket to Santiago.  On the bus to Santiago, we were again subject to the worst American movies I have ever seen.  Peru buses, great movies, Chilean buses, not so good.  That wasn’t the worst part of the trip.  We were due to arrive in Santiago around 3:30 pm.  We had almost made it, only about an hour and a half out when the bus developed problems.  The driver pulled to the side of the road and for awhile, no one knew what was going on.  Finally the steward came through the bus and said something about “No agua” and was gathering bottles.  We saw him cross the highway with 4 empty liter bottles and realized the bus must be overheating.  So we waited.  Buses pulled up behind us and then moved on, and I wondered what they would do if they couldn’t fix the bus.  Would they get a different one or would we be put out into the road?  Not too long later, the steward came in, said something in Spanish, and everyone jumped up and started gathering their things.   We had no idea what he said.  He came up to us and repeated it.  Realizing we still didn’t understand, he said something and then drew his hand across his throat.  I got the idea.  “The bus is dead?”  I asked.   He nodded and said something else and pointed out the window.  “There’s another bus and we can get on it?”  He nodded.  Now, I have no idea how I figured out what he was saying.  It felt a little like the TV show with  Timmy trying to understand what Lassie is saying.  “Woof!  Woof woof!”

  “What is it, Boy?”

  “”Woof! Woof woof woof! Woof!” 

 “The bus is broke down?” 

 “Woof woof!  Woof!”   

 “We need to move to another bus?”   

 “Woof!”

Of course by the time we understood what was happening, everyone else had gotten on the bus, so the places to sit were few.  We couldn’t sit together.  Dan sat at the front, Tristan was sitting in front of Tessa, and I had a choice to sit next to the dangerous looking man sitting in front of the bathrooms, or next to the man who was sitting across the aisle from Tessa. I chose the latter, not because I was necessarilyworried about the guy, but I was worried about the bathroom.  Dan had told me earlier that the bathroom on our bus what about to overflow.  This bus was less luxurious than ours.  I couldn’t take that chance. 

 I was having trouble maneuvering down the aisle, with my backpacks, and the unsympathetic driver couldn’t care less.  He started off before I could even get to my seat.  As the guy near Tessa realized I was going to sit next to him, a look of fear came over him.  I’m serious!  He really didn’t want me sitting next to him and I have no idea why.  When I was settled in the seat, and had everything put away, I looked at him, wondering if I should say something, and realized he had put his coat over his face.  I mean really!  If you don’t want me sitting next to you fine, but you don’t have to be so rude!

The journey continued, but now, since we were held up, we were hitting rush hour.  Santiago is infamous for bad traffic and we were in the thick of it.  We were on a major highway, probably about 6 lanes of traffic, and it was gridlock, with people changing lanes and driving on the shoulder and other bad behavior.  It was crazy, but it was about to get crazier.  A few of the passengers decided that instead of waiting until the bus reached its final destination, they were just going to get off on the expressway.  This, apparently, was a common practice, as the steward, while the bus was stopped in gridlock,  jumped off with the passenger, opened the cargo hold, and took out the passenger’s suitcase.  This didn’t just happen once, it happened at least 5 times, with the passenger scrambling across lanes of traffic.  The driver may have stopped, but he clearly had no patience for it,  as one time he took off, causing the steward to run to get back on the bus.  It was truly dangerous and crazy. 

As we entered Santiago, heading down dark back streets, I was silently praying that we would be dropped off at an actual bus station, not some back alley.  I just couldn’t handle it if we were dumped,  in the dark, in the middle of nowhere.  Luckily, we were dropped off at a huge bus terminal, with plenty of waiting taxis.  We had planned ahead this time, and made reservations at a hotel called the Maria Angola.  It was located in the neighborhood we were interested in  and was highly rated by users.   We finally made it to the hotel around 8 pm after a harrowing ride with a cab driver  who drove at breakneck speeds through the streets of Santiago.  I thought that at any moment we would be  hit by a car running a light, or pulling out in front of us.  He was driving so fast, there was no way we could have avoided an accident.  I don’t remember ever being that scared in a taxi, and that includes the time in New York City when the driver fell asleep. 

The hotel was nice.  Our room was on the top floor, the fifth floor, which the elevator didn’t go to.  We had to ride to the fourth floor, then up a flight of stairs, and down hallway to our “Penthouse”.  This was the only room that could accommodate us,.  We had three single beds and a TV in one room, a large bathroom in the middle, and Dan and I had our own seperate bedroom, complete with TV in the back.  Very nice!  The hotel clerk was very  nice, spoke passable english, and helped us order a Dominoes pizza.  Life was good!