Erin & Matt's Blog: Santiago

Day 98 - Smog

Our bus pulled into Santiago just as it was getting light, I think it could have been light earlier but thick smog seems to permanently linger over Santiago (prompting cold like symptoms in Erin for the duration of our stay). An efficient connection via the Metro put us at our hostel quite early where our room was already prepared, we were on a roll. We’d been amassing quite a to-do list for Santiago, so we set right to it. We found someone to replace the battery on Erin’s fancy watch, hit a ginormous shopping mall to replace some recently stolen items and stopped in a Japanese restaurant to satisfy our mounting sushi craving.

Part of the ginormous mall.

For dinner we made a start on our anniversary celebration (3 years married tomorrow). I finally managed to hunt down all the required ingredients to prepare Erin’s favourite, Thai Green Curry. I nearly choked some of the other hostel guests frying the curry paste!

Day 99 – Isn’t it your turn?

We decided before our first wedding anniversary that we’d take it in turns to organise something. A couple of weeks ago Erin started asking me what I was going to organise. We realised this morning that it was actually Erin’s turn, clearly I’d not arranged a very memorable occasion last year! [E: No it was my cunning plan!!! Ha hahaha!]

Anyway, we forged forward with my plan which failed to clear the first hurdle. I’d planned for us to catch the funicular up the hill behind our hostel, then the cable car across the top of the hill to a huge open air pool which overlooks the city. Alas, the cable car is closed for maintenance until July.

Instead we went for a walk around town. Including up Cerro Santa Lucia which is a steep parkland hill sticking up from the middle of the CBD. The afternoon’s anniversary treat was a massage, which thankfully worked out OK. Choosing somewhere to book had been a challenge though. To get a feel for what I mean check out this website!
The Palacio Bella Artes. [Looks a bit messier now!]

Downtown Santiago from atop Cerro Santa Lucia. Note the smog, those hills in the background are only about 20km away.

Cerro Santa Lucia again.

For dinner we headed a short way out of the centre to Ñuñoa, a bohemian restaurant strip reminiscent of Brunswick in Melbourne. The weather was nice so we sat outside enjoying our cocktails, prawn gyoza, conger with wasabi mash and Indian chicken skewers with ratatouille.

On the bus on the way home Erin’s puppy sensor sounded when she noticed movement from the shoebox on the lap of the girl next to us. Twenty seconds later, language barrier proving to be no hindrance, Erin had possession of the puppy. Not 10 seconds after that the puppy took to opportunity take a piss, in Erin’s lap and all over her handbag. The girl look mortified until Erin’s hysterical laughing put her at ease.

Erin with the puppy after he had done emptying his bladder.

Day 100 – Surf’s up

For lunch we’d tracked down an all you can eat sushi place to try and quiet our cravings for a while (until we hit Canada in all likelihood). I scoffed 32 rolls and Erin somewhere in the mid twenties. I think we got our money’s worth.

Mmm… sushi

After sushi we wobbled our way onto a bus toward the outskirts of town and ‘Mall Sport’, which as the name suggests is a mall dedicated to sporting goods. But first, a rant… Trains on Santiago’s Metro system run every couple of minutes from dawn until nearly midnight, whilst many buses run on a similar frequency and continue all night. Ticketing is via rechargeable swipe card system that allows you to transfer between services free of charge. Express buses are frequent, have priority lanes and don’t stop so often that it takes decades to reach where you’re going. When you do get near your target smaller local buses deliver you close to your destination. They’ve added 5 stations to the subway system in the last twelve months and will add at least that number again in the coming 12 months. It makes Melbourne’s public transport system look pathetic, and the excuses of the state government and transport operators look quite hollow. Rant over.

Santiago loves its malls, Mall Sport is a pretty good example. The central atrium contains a decent sized rock climbing gym and high ropes course, outside there is a marina (to test your new boat) and a standing wave pool. You can buy everything from guns to jet skis, but alas we could still not find Erin a decent waterproof jacket. We did at least manage to replace my backpack (with a much smaller one, yay!).

Indoor climbing.

Marina.

Boogie boarding on the standing wave.

The area we were staying in, Bellavista, was renowned for it bars and graffiti, but must get a bit rough at times. I went out to buy some beer that evening and initially thought the bottle shop was closed. But instead it turns out that they keep the shutters down and serve you through a small hole!

Day 101 – Still not a robbery

We decided to have another crack at getting to the pool. So we took the funicular up the hill and wandered around taking some pictures of the view. We started walking to the pool but decided we didn’t have time if we were going to get a bus to Valparaíso at a decent time. So we gave up again and headed back down.

The funicular pulling into the base station.

Breathe that smog.

Keeping watch.

Her too…

People come to pray for the Virgin Mary’s intervention, the safe delivery of a child for example. If things go well they come and erect a thankyou plaque at the base of the statue.

Heading back down the funicular.

On the way to the bus station (via the fish market for lunch) we stopped to photograph some graffiti. Next thing I know the camera is snatched mid-photo from my hands and our would be robber is heading as quick as he can around the corner. I set off in pursuit with Erin close behind. When he glanced over his shoulder and saw the two of us (packs and all) bearing down on him, Erin screaming obscenities, he decided it wasn’t worth the effort and dropped the camera. At this point I went for one of those beach cricket style catches, but this proved to be ill conceived for a couple of reasons. Firstly, bitumen is substantially less forgiving than sand, and secondly, the camera is one of those drop proof jobbies, far better designed to hit the tarmac than I am. Not that it mattered because I’m an awful catch and it hit the road anyway, but it only got one small scratch, whereas I was now bleeding from the elbow, knee and both hands.

A kind waitress at a nearby restaurant let us use the bathroom and a bit of space in the restaurant to conduct some first aid and calm down a little before we headed off for lunch and the bus. Our consultant on such matters, Sarah the AFP officer, advised us the first time we were robbed (from the hotel room in Puerto Varas) that is was not actually a robbery, but a burglary. This time we assume the term would be ‘attempted robbery’ given there was confrontation and we got the camera back. She was however impressed with our ‘successful foot pursuit’!

The photo prior to the snatch.

If I was a kindergarten student I reckon this would freak me out as I arrived each morning!

From the bus station in Valparaíso it was about a 45 minute walk to our hostel. The flat section of Valparaíso is much like any other dirty port city, but things changed once we got up onto Cerro Bellavista (Beautiful View Hill) where our hostel was located. Many of the houses are painted bright colours or covered in graffiti and they are stacked on top of another up the steep hill. Many houses have small terraces and gardens jutting out at strange angles. Our hostel was down a narrow street only accessible via stairs meaning that there was no traffic. The hostel itself is in an old house that was first converted to a bar, then to a hostel just last year. The main downstairs bar area is still a living area and some of the upstairs rooms have beautiful views across to the adjacent hill (Hostal Casa Valparaíso).

The father and son team who run the place are keen hosts. From the time we arrived they fussed over us, giving us directions, refusing to let us do even our own dishes and jumping to attention every time it looked as though we needed something. After the events of the day we were pretty exhausted, so we watched a bit of the Winter Olympics, but still didn’t get to bed until 1.30.

A neighbourhood cat keeping an eye on one of Valparaíso’s many staircases.