Yet another self absorbed lockdown post (incidentally, I hear we are celebrating 6 months of total lockdowns here in Melbourne in a couple of days). Sorry that I can't remember all the details of this day - I do remember my great friends Fred and Petra though, so that's something:)
Santiago's French Quarter.
This is largely the visual story of my two visits to Santiago in Chile that bookended a trek down in Patagonia way back in 2012. With Santiago really being a stop over and not the destination of this trip I didn't get an expansive look at the city, more of an entree sized sample really.
Rio Mapocho
Santiago from the pool deck of the W.
On the way down to Patagonia I only stayed for for a day, spending the day in the district of Providencia, a couple minutes walk from the Rio Mapocho and the Parque de las Esculturas, which is a linear park running along the river with sculptures by Chilean artists. The park provided a relatively peaceful place to stretch my legs. My thoughts soon turned to food (not unusual, say my friends). There didn't appear to be much open so I headed to a massive new plaza that was still being completed, judging by the amount of cars heading in there must have been something open. The plaza was massive and it appeared that it was the place to be for the locals. All the usual retail stores were there as well as some cafes, so I settled in for my third or fourth lunch since leaving Melbourne. And that was pretty well the extent of the first time I'd spent a night in Santiago, after eating I retired back to my room to sleep off some jet lag before the next leg of my journey.
Like most South American cities Santiago is a city of contrasts.
Like I said contrasts!
A couple weeks after my first visit to Santiago I was back again, this time successfully adapting to the 5 star treatment after the thousand star trekking down in Patagonia. As I was staying at the W Hotel I'd been deposited into the lap of luxury when I arrived in there early hours of the morning. Waking next morning I headed down for breakfast which was a classy affair as you would expect, however I would prefer warm eggs on toast with a cup of instant coffee and good company on a walk any time...although breakfast with Lady Ga Ga was probably a close second (more on that later).
One of the problem with digitising these old trips is that I've started to forget the details - this is actually one of the main reasons that I have a blog now.
I'd organised a guide called Julio to show us around a bit on this visit, so after breakfast we picked up Fred and Petra (a couple of fellow trekkers that I'd been traipsing around Torres Del Paine with) at their hotel and we spent a few hours being tourists around the sights of Santiago. After checking out a fair selection of Santiago's historic buildings and churches it was time to head back to the hotel and laze by the pool for a couple of hours.
Fred and Petra - we'd just spent a couple of weeks trekking around Patagonia together.
The Dirt.
Like a lot of the big cities around South America, Santiago is a little gritty and can be a little rough around the edges, however I really enjoy these places - if I want safe and suburban I've got Melbourne! That said I wasn't exactly roughing it on the mean streets of Santiago on this visit, on the way down to Patagonia is stayed at the Sheraton 4 Points and on my return visit I stayed at the very flash W Hotel. I organised a tour of the city with the driver that I used to transfer me to and from the airport on my numerous visits and between the three of us this proved a very enjoyable and cost effective way of having a look at the city. Now remember I mentioned having brekky with Lady Ga Ga well I wasn't embellishing that... much. Yes Lady Ga Ga was staying at the same hotel as me and I did indeed have breakfast in the same café as her, we even exchanged morning pleasantries over the buffet, although to say that I actually ate my breakfast with her maybe exaggerating things a little.
Relevant Posts.
After finishing up in Patagonia I returned to Santiago and stayed at the W - quite a contrast to camping in the snow down in Patagonia.
The big tub was most welcome!
The kids and police were camped out because the word had got out that the Feral Walker was in town...or maybe it was Lady Ga Ga?
The Andes were a lot closer than I'd imagined to Santiago.
No business class flights back in those days.
Now that is a welcome sight when I'm a long way from home.
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