Santiago - Chile 2014

We arrived into Santiago, the capital of Chile late in the afternoon after our flight from Buenos Aires, found our accommodation and settled in.  Where we were staying was in an apartment complex in the centre of the city so we had easy access to most things we want to see.

Santiago is a city of 6M people founded in 1541 and is surrounded by the Andes Mountains which we are sure would be very spectacular if you could see them, the smog makes that a bit difficult.

We only had 2 full days there so we went walking after settling in to get a feel of the place.  The area we were in is called ‘centro’ and is a lot older than other areas of the city but in centro, we walked to the Plaza De Armas, a square surrounded by key historical buildings and formerly a place where military training was conducted.  Nearby was also the Mercado Central which is the central market running since 1872.  Fish was very prominent as were the numerous eating places in the large open space central area.

seafood in Mercado Central

As we walked, there were specific sections that concentrated on particular goods or services.  For example, there was an entire street of barbers & hairdressers and another section with multiple shops selling brightly coloured wool for knitting.  On the wide walkways near the central market were over 15 tarot card readers all in a row and doing a very brisk trade, whilst further on there were rows of people playing chess and many people watching how different games were progressing which created a very communal feel.

Next day was spent using a hop on/off bus to move throughout the city, enabling us to explore places which grabbed our interest whilst hearing about the city’s history along the way.  So we made a point of specifically exploring the Plaza De La Constitucion (Constitution Square), Santa Lucia which is a hill we climbed winding our way up stairs through and around numerous arches, fountains and other neo classical structures.

some of the stairs up Santa Lucia

We drove through very new parts of the city like El Golf, nicknamed by the locals as ‘Sanhattan’, a play on Manhattan because it is Santiago’s financial centre filled with very tall and modern high rise.  We stopped for lunch in a colourful area called Patio Bellavista, a part of the city renowned for its culture, quirky restaurants and access to the San Cristobal hill adorned with a large Virgin Mary statue accessed via a funicular.

'Sanhattan'

Santiago is a nice city of multiple faces and unless you put the effort into exploring all of it, you could very easily come away from it with the wrong impression.

For our final full day in Santiago, we took a full day tour to visit Vina Del Mar and Valpariso, coastal cities located about 90 minutes from Santiago.  Vina Del Mar is like the Gold Coast equivalent for Santiago and receives millions of visitors each year taking their vacations.

Valpariso on the other hand is a much older ramshackle and fascinating city, once very important to Santiago as its main trading port until the Panama Canal was opened and caused ships rounding the horn to almost cease.  In 2003, Valpariso was declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site due to its importance and spontaneously built architecture across 41 hills and steep gullies which is why there are at least 17 funiculars.  We did a walking tour through this fascinating place with its bright colours, thousands of timber and iron unique homes built on steep hills, quite often adorned by bright colours and artwork as the pictures will show.

We visited Valpariso on the Friday and flew out of Santiago the next day which is unfortunately when Valpariso caught fire, so far with the loss of 12 lives and about 1,000 homes.  Having walked through part of this city, a fire in it would be a terrible experience due to the steep hills, old timber buildings and very narrow streets.  Very sad indeed!

For more photos of Santiago and surrounds just click on the link below:

CLICK HERE for more photos of - Exploring Santiago 2014

So this is our last post for this trip and we hope you have enjoyed it.  

When we head off on our next meandering we will start the blog up again, but for now and using a Chilean culinary treat to close off with, we’re ‘completo’... for now.

Santiago version of a completo