Santiago Day 6

Today we took some time to walk around Santiago. For being such a big city, we didn't feel like there was as much to do in other cities we've been in like Bogota, for example.

We started our walk by heading to the main plaza, Plaza de Armas. The plaza had a fountain in the middle and lots of big palm trees. It wasn't as nicely decorated as other plazas we've seen. On the plaza was the Catedral de Santiago. We popped our heads into the cathedral just in time before daily mass was due to begin. The cathedral gave off Roman vibes with the paintings on the ceiling and the stone statues all along the sides of the cathedral. Allan also had a look in the crypt.

After the cathedral we popped across the square to the national history museum. Everything was in Spanish and we were feeling a bit tired, so we didn't take time to translate things. Instead we walked around piecing things together as we went. The museum was all about the birth of Chile starting with the war for independence (led by the son of Irish immigrants) and continued with the development of Santiago.

We then made our way to the Iglesia de San Francisco on our way to the Biblioteca Nacional. The church was very interesting. The walls were made of stone and the ceiling was made of wood with square panels. There was also a beautiful nativity set up, and it even had a fountain! It looks like the church is undergoing some refurbishment because some things were missing, like the crucifix from the altar. The national library was very grand on the outside and I felt like that sort of didn't carry all the way through the inside. There were some lovely grand staircases and some nice stained glass windows in the ceiling, but other than that it felt very plain inside. There was one room/library though that I felt was very nice and if that carried through more of the whole building it would have matched the outside better. The room had wood paneling and grand glass cases with old artifacts inside. People in gloves worked there and it was quiet.

After the library, we were going to go to a museum that had lots of paintings, but it was very far away and had some controversial online reviews, instead we popped our heads in the pre-Columbian art museum (too expensive to go walk around in) and then headed back to the hotel with a quick pit stop at the Palacio de Moneda. After the mold debacle in Easter Island, I think we were both just tired. We hung out at the hostel for a little while before heading to catch our night bus to Mendoza.Baca lagi