Coffee in bed. What a treat I had missed it over the last week, but my new jug and faithful bag of Fusio did the trick!!
My destination for the morning was to check out the tallest building in South America; the Costanera Centre further out than I had been before and in the opposite direction to my usual travels.
I stopped at a food stall to buy some meringues; they looked so good and fresh. I only wanted 2 but 5he lady servimg said I could get 3 of one type for 1,000 peso. So got three meringues and 3 pastry things then she threw in another meringue for good measure. Just as well I didnt like the pastry ones, but the meringues were yum, chewy centres with crisp crunchy outers. There was another customer waiting when I was being served and whilst I told them both I didn’t understand (but managed to understand about the price etc) the lovely lady told me her life story but then she might have been telling me how ugly I was. But she chatted for ages, nodding and smiling. So lovely.
Again this inner city road has many lanes separated by a park down the centre; green grass and trees everywhere and then like magic a fountain appears right in the middle of it. So beautiful.
I followed the road parallel to the river (what we would call a stream but possibly it turns into a river in the rainy season) for sometime taking in the glorious tree lined avenues off to the side. I couldn’t help wondering how they must be even more stunning when the trees are green and not browning in the autumn chill.
The area was fill of modern shops and office towers. The city has lost the colour and madness down here with few people on streets, hundreds of cars all zooming along the wide beautiful roads. Such a contrast to the area around Central station.
An Espresso Duble at a place called Cofi was a nice break on my walk. Here I see a few office workers immaculately dressed and groomed.
On the walking tour the guide told us that because lunch is usually the main meal of the day all companies had to either provide a lunch time meal or provide a means for workers to have a free lunch. Poor employer that has me on their staff. They’d go bust pretty quick just because of how much I eat.
I soon get to the Costanera Centre and looked up. It hurt my neck it was so tall (300 metres) Hmmm maybe I wont go to the top, given that I hate heights and the thought of being in a confined space elevator to get there. The centre consists of four buildings; the very tall one (Gran Torre Santiago) and three shorter ones, housing 2 high end hotels, the mall and offices.
But then I realise that the lower floors house a mall and I couldn’t resist. Probably the biggest mall I have ever been in; 7 massive floors with smart, modern shops on every one. Thee was 1 floor devoted to outdoor active wear and another just to restaurants. It seemed like just good ones and barely a chain in sight......until you turn the corner and they are all there together. About 40 of them mainly Sanguicheria. (Burgers). I roughly count about 3,000 people eating in that part of the food hall and about another 1,000 seats in the area housing the more expensive restaurants.
During my wandering I heard the sound of singing and clapping and on closer investigation saw it was the wait staff of the Tommy Rocket hamburguesa dancing around their store. Hilarious.
After walking round for ages I chose to eat at Tony Romas and was served by a delightful young guy called Ariel. He let me prattle on in my made up Spanish then repeated what I had ordered. A clever menu. The name of each dish was in English. The description in Spanish. There were little pics of the various ways to get your grill; blue, rare, med rare etc.
I waited to see if they hit a Med Rare today. Sadly I was over optimistic. I got a steak, that was half fat and gristle and had been cooked on a cold grill and was not in the slightest rosy (Medium to well done). Oh well I guess I just give up on trying to get a decently cooked steak.
Lunch done I wandered the shops then went to the supermarket to grab something I could eat in my room for dinner. Now I’m a supermarket junkie and this was even bigger than the massive hypermarkets I had seen in Italy. They sold anything and everything from electrical items, to clothes and of course food. Sadly much of the stuff was pre-packaged and not in one person portions but I got a crunchy roll and a packet of cheese for my last meal in Santiago.
On going to pay I was spoiled for choice - 47 checkouts!!!!!!!
Walking back home I realised that it was obvious that I was in a classier part of town. Mainly because there were a number of young grey haired women like me, but I must say they looked far more graceful and elegant than I did.
Its funny how you don’t appreciate the absence of things till you see what has been missing. I spied the first male shaved head. And he was a pom. But after that I just kept seeing guys with shaved heads. Most men (even very old ones) have great wads of hair even those that have gone grey. It reminded me of the men in Greece and Mexico with their beautiful silver locks.
Back to my hotel and my time in Santiago is nearly over. I fly out early tomorrow for a day on the move going to Colombia, leaving Santiago for Sao Paulo (yes way over there 4 hours) and then on to Bogota Colombia (another 6 hours) plus a two hour time change. So unless there is a compelling story about airports or people there wont be a blog tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment