Buenas Manaña,
We are just hanging out at the hostel this morning waiting for a taxi to come and pick us up, to take us to the airport for our flight to Ecuador.
Yesterday was a public holiday here in SA (just like at home), so we thought we would get out and explore the city. Well, compared to the pulsating mass of humanity we encountered on Thursday afternoon, today was like the centre of Hastings on a Sunday afternoon - almost completely deserted! Most of the shops and restaurants were closed, and because it is a religious holiday the museums we wanted to see were closed as well (bugger!).
We went back to Cerro Santa Lucia, and had more of a look around, then wandered around for a bit and finally managed to find the Plaza de Armas. It was only one of two places we went to that were actually full of people. Saw a beautiful cathedral there - the South Americans sure don´t do things by halves, especially when it comes to celebrating religion. We then managed to order some lunch (in Spanish - and we actually got what we wanted :-) ).
We continued our walking tour of the city by heading towards the river (which is actually just a fast running grubby stream), and walked through the green belt that runs alongside the river, then crossed the river into the supposedly "wealthy" suburb of Bellavista. There were a couple of nice apartment blocks, but other than that the buildings were just as rundown as any other areas we have seen. There are some beautiful buildings (museums/cathedrals etc), but most of the place is pretty rundown really.
On the other side of Bellavista was the Metropolitan Park of Santiago, which is a huge park on a huge hill with a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top - this was the only other place that was full of people. It has a cable car (funincular) and a gondola going up to the top, and it houses the national zoo amongst other things. Today there was also market set up at the bottom - nothing very exciting - but we bought yummy icecream - coconut flavour. We walked to the top to see the statue (it was very hot and there was not a lot of shade on the trail), took a few photos at the top, and got some great views of the city - basically sprawling city in every direction as far as the eye could see (well as far as the smog would let you see!). There is a bit of a market at the top also, with food stalls etc, and they were selling a popular drink containing barley kernels, peaches and cold tea! As it was so hot we decided to take the cable car back down (only 800 pesos each which is about $2.50). The queue for the cable car at the bottom was HUGE, but hardly anyone waiting at the top, so we figured that it must be popular to get the cable car up then walk back down.
We then walked back to the hostel via the nicest suburb we have seen so far - Lastarria. By that time it was 1830, so we had been out walking around for 6.5 hours, and walked around 20km, so we were a bit foot sore!
We have discovered a new food which is quite yummy! They are called pepinos and they are tear drop shaped with cream and purple striped skin. When peeled the flesh is pale yellow, and tastes like rockmelon.
Impressions of Santiago - the pollution has not been anywhere near as bad as I thought, you don´t really notice it until you go up high and see the smog. The people are quite nice and quite "European" in their dress and outlook. We haven´t really had any culture shock as such here, as everything looks kinda familiar - just in Spanish!
It is going to be interesting to see how different it is when we get to Ecuador.
We are just hanging out at the hostel this morning waiting for a taxi to come and pick us up, to take us to the airport for our flight to Ecuador.
Yesterday was a public holiday here in SA (just like at home), so we thought we would get out and explore the city. Well, compared to the pulsating mass of humanity we encountered on Thursday afternoon, today was like the centre of Hastings on a Sunday afternoon - almost completely deserted! Most of the shops and restaurants were closed, and because it is a religious holiday the museums we wanted to see were closed as well (bugger!).
We went back to Cerro Santa Lucia, and had more of a look around, then wandered around for a bit and finally managed to find the Plaza de Armas. It was only one of two places we went to that were actually full of people. Saw a beautiful cathedral there - the South Americans sure don´t do things by halves, especially when it comes to celebrating religion. We then managed to order some lunch (in Spanish - and we actually got what we wanted :-) ).
We continued our walking tour of the city by heading towards the river (which is actually just a fast running grubby stream), and walked through the green belt that runs alongside the river, then crossed the river into the supposedly "wealthy" suburb of Bellavista. There were a couple of nice apartment blocks, but other than that the buildings were just as rundown as any other areas we have seen. There are some beautiful buildings (museums/cathedrals etc), but most of the place is pretty rundown really.
On the other side of Bellavista was the Metropolitan Park of Santiago, which is a huge park on a huge hill with a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top - this was the only other place that was full of people. It has a cable car (funincular) and a gondola going up to the top, and it houses the national zoo amongst other things. Today there was also market set up at the bottom - nothing very exciting - but we bought yummy icecream - coconut flavour. We walked to the top to see the statue (it was very hot and there was not a lot of shade on the trail), took a few photos at the top, and got some great views of the city - basically sprawling city in every direction as far as the eye could see (well as far as the smog would let you see!). There is a bit of a market at the top also, with food stalls etc, and they were selling a popular drink containing barley kernels, peaches and cold tea! As it was so hot we decided to take the cable car back down (only 800 pesos each which is about $2.50). The queue for the cable car at the bottom was HUGE, but hardly anyone waiting at the top, so we figured that it must be popular to get the cable car up then walk back down.
We then walked back to the hostel via the nicest suburb we have seen so far - Lastarria. By that time it was 1830, so we had been out walking around for 6.5 hours, and walked around 20km, so we were a bit foot sore!
We have discovered a new food which is quite yummy! They are called pepinos and they are tear drop shaped with cream and purple striped skin. When peeled the flesh is pale yellow, and tastes like rockmelon.
Impressions of Santiago - the pollution has not been anywhere near as bad as I thought, you don´t really notice it until you go up high and see the smog. The people are quite nice and quite "European" in their dress and outlook. We haven´t really had any culture shock as such here, as everything looks kinda familiar - just in Spanish!
It is going to be interesting to see how different it is when we get to Ecuador.
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