Something about Santiago

Our adventure to Santiago commenced early with a short three-kilometre walk to the bus terminal and then a seven-hour bus ride crossing the Andes mountains. As we drove closer to the Andes, it felt as if we were almost within reaching distance of the clouds. The snow-capped mountains contrasted to the 30+ degrees outside and the desert-like terrain below us. The landscape was postcard perfect and could have been the backdrop of some western movie, with large cacti all over the place.

The first stop was Chilean immigration. After getting our passports stamped, our whole tour bus was made to stand in rows with our bags in front of us ready for inspection. It felt like were facing the firing squad and any wrong move could result in the loss of life. For the third or forth time, the sniffer dog was made to run up and down the group. You could feel the tension in the air. Bingo! Someone was trying to smuggle in an illicit substance – but not what you might think. Someone had left a pack of nuts in their bag. Once the contraband was confiscated, we were on our way down the Andes, circling around the mountain. At one point, the front of the bus was over the edge of the cliff, as it turned around the sharp bend in the road. We just closed our eyes and hoped for the best. When we arrived in Santiago, in one piece, it was expected that the baggage handlers received a tip. Now, Australians are notorious for their disdain for tipping but we were prepared; others on the tour, however, were not. One young woman kept repeating in an ocker Australian accent: “I don't have Chilean pesos”. In the end, they threw her bags at her.

We stayed a few blocks from downtown Santiago, which made it easy to get around the city. On the thirteenth floor, our apartment had great views of the city and the surrounding mountains. Everything was within walking distance, so we spent most of the first day wandering around the streets, getting a feel for the city and exploring the nearby arts and crafts market. Once again, we struck up a conversation with two locals, but our lack of Spanish meant we understood little of what they had to say except their names: Pancho and Marc. Even then, we can't be certain. Other than that, it was just a series of hoots and clicks. The Chilean accent tends to drop the “s” on the endings of words and they speak really quickly, although a two-year old child would probably speak too quickly for us at the moment.

Within the first few days of arriving in Santiago, Ricky started to feel ill. His diagnosis was food poisoning from the food on the bus to Santiago. But “Dr” Jason disagreed with this diagnosis and offered an alternative suggestion that it might be an infection or perhaps Zika virus. Except for a mild fever, and some muscle and joint pain (due to all the walking and lack of yoga), Ricky was fairly certain it was a mild case of food poisoning. Three days later, Ricky had recovered. The recovery process was probably assisted by the abstinence from alcohol after running into the local alcoholic anonymous association. A coincidence? We think not.

A few days into our stay, we took the “Free Walking Tour” of downtown Santiago. This gave us a great overview of the area from the perspective of the local tour guide, with a little bit of history thrown in for good measure. One of the first stops on the tour, after the Plaza de Armas, was one of the many “cafés with legs”, a speciality coffee shop catering to business men who come to have coffee and perve at young women in tight clothing. Think hooters but with coffee. For one minute every day, some of the cafés close their windows, and the waitresses disrobe in front of the men. Classy!

The tour also took in the sights of the Presidential Palace, Cathedral, Antiguo Congreso, Palacio la Moneda, the stock exchange and Santa Lucia opera house. On the following day, we followed this up with our own tour of Bellavista, a small suburb across the Mapucho River. Bellavista is a hip area of the city, with lots of street art and artisanal and craft goods. Think hipster. On our way home from Bellavista, we stopped by a small museum, the Benjamin Vicuña MacKenna Museum, where Jason twisted his ankle once again. Déjà vu! Rio all over again. If he were a race horse, he would have been sent to the glue factory.

On the final day before leaving Santiago, the country had their presidential election. Elections, referendums and protests seem to follow us everywhere we go. There is also a custom in Chile that alcohol cannot be purchased or served on election days. This almost killed Jason as he had not stocked up on beers. It was a (forced) day of sobriety.

The previous round of the Chilean presidential elections resulted in no clear winner. With all of the honking of horns and noise coming from the streets below, we knew that this time there was a result and that the new president was Sebastián Piñera from the right-wing party. We don't know a lot about Piñera other than he is a billionaire who has vowed to halt the same-sex marriage bill that has been introduced by the current left-wing government. The Chileans have a system whereby a person can be elected president an infinite number of times but they cannot serve consecutive terms. This has resulted in a back and forth presidency between Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera. With that result, it's probably time for us to move on.

Next stop: ValparaisoRead more