Down in the City

Immediately after finishing the last blog post, Christine announced that a few friends were going to be coming round for a small dinner party and to meet Fiona. The chance to meet Christine’s mysterious cousin from New Zealand was an opportunity not to be missed, and we felt a bit like celebrities! If I am honest I was just glad to be able to sit down and relax after the exertions of the morning.

The first of Christine & Andres’s friend to arrive were Matias & Gaelle and their daughter, Abril, and we were soon sitting round their dining table tucking into some lovely food. Both Matias & Gaelle spoke excellent English, and over a few beers & several glasses of wine the conversation flowed effortlessly, with much laughter and jokes. Later another friend, Jenny, a Swedish girl with a decidedly Irish accent, arrived on her bike and joined us in what was becoming more ‘Party’ than ‘Dinner”...!

Then we started tucking into the spirits...... Fiona & I had brought some duty free Gin & Rum for Christine and Andres, and I took the opportunity to pick up a bottle of Laugavilin Scotch Whisky on the way through the airport. Initially Fiona thought that I would struggle to finish the whole of the bottle of whisky in the time we had in Santiago, before flying down to Brazil, but she need not have worried. I introduced Andres & Matias to the delights of Laugavilin, and Christine being a genuine scotch lass, need no such introduction. By the end of the evening the bottle was empty and there were more than a few slurred words and incoherent sentences being spoken. Not bad for a Tuesday evening.....

Fiona & I have been knocked sideways by the jet-lag, which has really interfered with our sleep patterns. For the first few nights we seem to go to bed and fall asleep quickly only to wake 3 or 4 hours later, wide awake that is, and then find it impossible to get back to sleep for a couple of hours. The worst of it is that when we wake up in the middle of the night, we feel fine, only to eventually fall back to sleep and wake up the next morning feeling awful.... I can feel your lack of sympathy from here....

Anyway, when I arose on the Wednesday morning, I bumped into Christine on her way out to work, and she was very much the worse for wear, and swearing off whisky for the next eternity before she left. Fiona and I sat around waiting for Andres to get up, as he had offered to be our tour guide for the day. Eventually around midday he made an appearance and I was not convinced that he was not suffering a little also.

Anyway we left the house and headed in to the city, which is only a few minutes’ walk away. We walked through the Parque Forestal to the Museum of Contempory Arts, and spent an hour or so looking round this lovely boutique museum, not too big, not too small. We stopped for coffee and Andres got a message that Christine had given up fighting her mammoth hangover and taken the rest of the day off. I have to say, I did feel somewhat responsible....

We continued our tour of the city with a walk through the Mercado Central, to a Railway Station that had been converted into an arts space, and thorough the local Santiago produce market where Andres gets his produce for his chef business. We ate lunch at a Peruvian restaurant where we had a mountain of a speciality dish, (the name escapes me), and we got to experience ‘Inca Cola’...! We next made our way to the Place Des Armes, the central city square, and visited the Catholic Cathedral which was pretty spectacular.

With a walk through one of the main shopping area, (no, Fiona managed to avoid buying anything), and a quick visit to the very old and very cool Church of San Francisco, we made our way our way back to the apartment. Overall, Santiago is a pretty chill place, with some lovely places and some cool stuff to look at. The people are very smart & friendly and there is no sense of social problems or despairing poverty, although I am sure they are there if you know where to look for them. If you want a 'soft introduction' to South America, then I would recommend Chile & Santiago.

During our day looking at the sites we clocked up a creditable 12kms of walking. Adding that to the 14kms walking we did the day before, Fiona & I were pretty much exhausted, and we had only been here for a couple of days... Oh yeah, and for the next few days we were heading south to experience the Andes Mountains, and even more walking.... Oh Gawd...!!