Day 3 - Santiago

Today we decided to have a cultural day and visit some of the museums that Franco showed us on the walking tour.

We started at the Pre-Columbia Art Museum and ended up staying there for hours. Simon and I (especially Simon) sometimes get a bit bored when looking round museums but this one was really interesting. The exhibits were great and we learnt a lot about the Mapuche culture and other indigenous people of Chile.

After the museum, we grabbed ourselves some rolls and cream cheese (staple traveller lunch) before heading out again for some more sightseeing.

We strolled over to the Bellavista district which is the hipster area of Santiago that we had briefly visited on our tour, and had a wander around Santa Lucia Hill. At the top there is a castle and when the weather is good it's a great viewpoint to see the city and the surrounding mountains. Unfortunately the weather hasn't been great so we didn't get the picturesque views we had hoped for. There were some pretty sketchy steps up to the look out though (very steep, narrow and slippery). Miraculous I managed to get down in one piece. Simon however slipped down a number of steps on his bottom!

After the park we headed to the poet, Pablo Neruda's house, La Chascona. Pablo built the house for his secret love Matilde Urrita back in 1953. Pablo named the house after Matilde's crazy red hair (chascona means wild mane of hair in Chilean Spanish).

When entering his home we were given audio guides which told us about the different rooms as we walked around. Pablo had a very quirky style so the house was fascinating to walk around. He was a great collector so there are loads of random bits and pieces all over the house. Pablo loved the sea, but being unable to swim and therefore never going in it, he based his house on a ship. There is a bar in the house which was from an old French ship as well as a long galley like dining room. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. I think I am going to have to read some of his poetry now!

After a very busy day of sightseeing and cultural stuff, we grabbed some bits for dinner and headed back to the hostel. Today's culinary delight was spaghetti bolognese accompanied by a £2 bottle of Chilean wine (we love that it is so cheap over here).Read more