Mainly people watching in Santiago

I think I forgot to say that the gorgeous boutique hotel where I am staying was directly over the road from a construction site where the jackhammer started on the dot of nine. That set off, on a regular basis, motion triggered alarms on the cars in the street. Oh joy! But at least they waited for a respectable hour to start. 

With no jug in my room (I have reprimanded myself many times for ditching the one I found in Mexico - best travel accessory ever) so I had to go downstairs for a coffee. Yesterday’s perk kept in a vacuum jug and not at all nice at that. Not what I would have expected. A full breakfast comes with my room rate but without a proper coffee that wasn’t going to happen today, maybe tomorrow if I bring my own coffee. I have high expectations for good coffee in Columbia!! And maybe some good chocolate to go with it. 

Off on a mission to find another bean to bar chocolatier I set off on foot. It was literally a walk in the park. The most beautiful wide, grassed and tree lined berm between two main roads. The leaf sweepers were out in force; I don’t envy them at this time of year but they were doing a sterling job. One group leaf blowing and the other sweeping the leaves into piles ready for the leaf chopper. 

Along the way some stunning sculptures, the cops and the odd homeless person’s tent to keep me clicking. 

And then a visit to the Museum of Fine Art. The ground floor atrium devoted to replicas of famous statues.

Tucked in a corner was art of a different kind. Almost like mosaic but instead of tiles the individual components were done on paper serviettes about 10cm x 10cm with a frilled edge. Magnificent. 

A few more neat sculptures and other pieces filled the upper floors. 

It was too early for lunch so I wandered to find the chocolate shop I had found on line. It was a nice walk watching the locals enjoying the sun and checking out what the massive queue of people were waiting for. The queue would have been 200m long, going round the corner and down the next street. I followed it to the start.... welfare office and people queueing for payment. My goodness.

Next was lunch and I found my way back to the restaurant that we ate at the first day I was here. La Galeon. The shell fish empanada I had the first time was so good I ordered another for a starter and a house special ceviche as a main. The problem when eating alone is that you don’t have opportunities to sample lots of dishes like you do in a crowd. Oh well. 

The Empanada was just as good as the first time round. A variety of shellfish wrapped in crisp Empanada pastry and baked. Spread with a little chilli before eating it was divine. 

Then came my ceviche. This one with chunks of super fresh fish, ‘cooked’ in lemon juice and garnished with red onion and cilantro; the fish just yielding with each bite and the garnish giving it a pop. Yummo I loved it. 

From there I wandered watching people go about their daily lives here in the Central city. I love how there are so many pedestrian places, parks, greenery and art work and the people all happily doing their thing in and out of shops or sitting at sidewalk cafes. 

It’s so nice to see shops that aren’t replicas of our NZ/Australian/European stores for a change. Clothing wise there’s nothing different to our stores but it is clear that they are gearing up for the cold of winter. 

For some reason (I’ve seen too many beauty pageants on TV I guess) I expected to see many spectacularly beautifully dressed and groomed women along with suave and dapper young gorgeous men. Alas, no such thing. People are probably scruffier than they are at home. I have’t seen any of the mutton dressed as lamb ‘recoleta ladies’ here either. 

I have noticed here that people, in general, are darker skinned than in Buenos Aires, many with quite pronounced squared facial features of the Mapuche people, the largest indigenous group in Chile. 

Despite the lack of language I have picked up that Chile and Argentina speak different versions of Spanish (and in Spain it, in some instances, varies again) particularly in the pronunciation of words containing double LL’s. For instance the word Parilla is pronounced Parisha in Argentina and Pariya in Chile. I believe the pronunciation can change depending on the region too. 

One thing that is prevalent in this huge city (population around 7m - Buenos Aires Metropolitan 2.9m, wider city 11m ) are super polite drivers. Theres no screaming, yelling, horn honking or anything. Every time I have gone to wait at a pedestrian crossing drivers have stopped and waved me across. They certainly know how to drive and I guess the nana drivers just don’t make it through the cut. I watched a learner driver practice parking in a space most kiwis wouldn’t even think of. It took a while but they managed to park in a space barely bigger than the car. 

I love how many of the main roads are named after people important in their history.  Not all of those people are indigenous or spanish:

• The Liberator General Bernardo O’Higgins even has a province named after him as well as main streets in both Santiago and Valparaiso. He freed Chile from Spanish rule during the Chilean war of independence in 1826.
• Admiral Thomas Cochrane helped organise and lead the rebel natives in Chile and Brazil during their respective wars of independence.
• Benjamin Vicuna McKenna was a Chilean, journalist, historian and writer he was for a period Mayor of Santiago. He served time in exile after his involvement in the revolution against the government and was taken prisoner.

Most every person I have met has been super friendly and gone out of their way to help. Despite knowing I don’t understand (no entiendo) they continue to chat away to me in the expectation that I know what they are saying. They give me directions in great detail and it is just as well I can follow their hand movements and get the gist of the direction I need to go in. I haven’t been lost once so between the instructions I get and my map reading I’m doing OK. 

Whilst wandering I noticed a number of quirky things:

• The number of tobacconists - smokers are everywhere although I dint think they are as prevalent as they are in Buenos Aires
• A street of wool shops - I did see people sitting in stalls and knitting while they were doing so.
• A row of tents housing tarot readers - most of them had clients too

I wandered on and was somehow drawn into a department store. As I’d been wandering I was keeping my eye out for a baby electric kettle like I had but no luck. Anyway here in this department store I found something small and nabbed it. Not quite as practical as the one I had and slightly larger (1 litre capacity) but it means I can have coffee in my room now. On the down side I have to lug it round. Oh well. Slowly I dragged by feet back home. What was to have been a lazy day didn’t quite work out that way. 

Despite having made an earlier decision to eat something light in my room (and having bought brandy snaps for that reason) I was starving by about 8pm and felt like pizza. The guy at the hotel have me directions for a good pizza place which I didn’t find, but being my first night of wandering in this neighbourhood I was enthralled with the great buzz around me. Yet another park over the road going in a direction I haven’t yet been and now on the plan for tomorrow, my last day in this magical place. 

I remembered a wee courtyard with a pile of restaurants I had seen yesterday and so headed down there parked my butt and waited for my Margarita and Carmenere watching the people as I did so. 

The pizza wasn’t the worst I’ve had and a million times better than the Argentine pizza I’d eaten (or tried to) in Buenos Aires. At least this crust vaguely resembled an Italian pizza. It filled a gap quite nicely thank you and when I didn’t finish it all they whisked it away and bought me a takeaway container with the left overs. No point in taking it back to the hotel so it was quietly deposited in a rubbish tin on the way home. 

Another super day in this magical city.

Today’s new words/phrases:

• La quenta por favor (the bill please)
• Desculpe (excuse me)

The list is growing.