Santiago, Chile

Amy was introduced to Norman via Skype a few weeks before we left for South America, and we finally met him here. (Norman is American but has lived in Santiago for years and was super helpful whenever we had questions about our travels.) He happened to be in Valparaiso doing business with a friend, Cristián, the day we were leaving so they gave us a lift to Santiago.


Before leaving, they took us to a lovely lunch at the famous Cafe Turri, overlooking the water in Valparaiso.


With Cristián behind the wheel of his sporty car, we got to Santiago in no time. It was sort of like being in a high-speed chase or setting a record in the Indy 500, which made it all the more fun and far better than any bus we could've taken. We weren't as much fun, however.... both of us fell asleep almost the whole way there.





The best thing about Santiago for us was that we stayed in this city for absolutely free in luxury accommodations reminiscent of the W Hotel, compliments of our new friend, Cristián. Not only did he treat us to the best food that we´ve had in six weeks, we were able to take showers without shoes and take a much needed break of hovering over toilet seats.




Santiago reminded us very much of the U.S. It's very clean and even resembled CA in parts. For example, this is where we ate dinner one night in Cristián's neighborhood:

When we weren't with Cristián, we got around Santiago by taxi and our first subway system in South America. Pascale, of course, was a pro at navigating our way through city via the Metro:



Underground murals by the trains:

Cerro Santa Lucia has fountains, gardens and some nice views of the city at the top:






We both agreed that Santiago is LA´s sister city but with less graffitti and plastic surgery, except for what we left in a local restaurant.

As in many cities, a statue of a religious figure looks out over all of Santiago. The Virgin Mary can be seen day or night from anywhere atop the Cerro San Cristobal. We took cable cars to visit the her up close:

This is us still at the top of San Cristobal, but the city has multiple lookout points where we were able to view the smog from different angles, including those amazing sunsets.

We also tried to be a little more cultured in our experience and took in a museum but must admit that the best part of it was playing icescapades on the slick floors until the guards forced us to leave.

The visit would not have been complete without visiting the last of Neruda´s houses in Chile. What we would´ve given to be Matilde.

Neruda put PM in the window of their home to stand for Pablo and Matilde, and the sun design represents Matilde because the sun's rays reminded him of her hair. Such a romantic he was, probably even wrote her some poetry.

These clowns performed for tips in front a crowd that formed on a major street in Santiago. They did anything to entertain with their bicycle and suitcase of props--stopping traffic at their leisure, taunting the drivers, getting into people's cars or even laying down in the road. It was hilarious to watch....

You would never see this in the States:

Notice the second clown getting into the red car....

We met Raul on a tour when he was visiting Mendoza, Argentina. He is from Santiago originally but has lived all over the world, even in Los Angeles (Thousand Oaks). He was really friendly and invited us to come eat at his pizza restaurant "Verace," and cafe when we got to Santiago. We took him up on it....

Cultural note: Cristián gave us soft beds, wireless Internet, laundry service, hot showers, and salt that was powder fine.... but no pepper. These are two things that don't necessarily go together for everyone, but we realized it may be less of a Cristián thing and more of a Chilean thing.

This section of the grocery store is dedicated entirely to table salt in bags, bottles and boxes of all sizes, but you have to look long and hard to find even a packet of pepper.

More photos: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8QcN2TFq0bM-I