Santiago

Church on the central Plaza de Armas

 

Mapuche statue

Santiago was more or less a stopover point for us.  Kristen thought it was ‘eh’ on her last trip to Chile, and I wasn’t particularly excited to see it, either.  And it was exactly as expected – a South American city.  It’s got the central plaza, 200+ year-old colonial buildings, jam-packed pedestrian mall, brown stinky river that you can smell when the wind is just right, and a couple of very nice neighborhoods.  Certainly it was a pleasant example of a South American city.  It appeared to be safe, the colonial buildings were well-kept, and the bohemian neighborhoods were very nice.  It reminded us a lot of Buenos Aires.

We stayed at a great B&B in the center of town called Casa Bonita, and the owner gave us two major tips: lunch at the Central Market, and for a free guided walking tour of the city.  The Central Market was pretty cool, since it serves as the starting point for much of Santiago’s seafood.  Giant fish were stacked high, their names in Spanish.  We stopped at a restaurant in the center for a delicious lunch of fried conger eel and a seafood empanada.  We joked that this was not the place to order a salad.

The next morning, we headed to the central Plaza de Armas to take the walking tour.  Our guide appeared to be a student, and we were able to practice our (now much improved) Spanish with him.  The tour leaned heavily toward the history of Chile, including some very interesting points regarding the Mapuche tribe.  The Mapuche are an Incan tribe that resisted colonialism and fought hard against the Spaniards.  Chile is currently undergoing a sort of transformation in awareness of historical Mapuche oppression.  They are building statues dedicated to Mapuche heritage, and all over Santiago there are T-shirts and graffiti saying things like “Todos Somos Mapuche” (we are all Mapuche).  The guide curiously did not talk much about recent history, including Allende and Pinochét.

After the tour, we ate some typical Chilean food (cazuela de pollo and an empanada de pina) and headed for our bus to Mendoza.