Chillin' in Chile

Because we had long ago booked our flight home departing from Santiago, we had no choice but to return to the Chilean capital after our delightful stay in neighboring Argentina.

The only really good thing about our four-day stay here in October is that we now know which areas of town to avoid and which ones we want to frequent. We lucked out and found a lovely AirBnb in Providencia, right in the heart of Barrio Italia, a REALLY nice part of town. We're close to a couple of large parks where we can maintain our morning exercise rituals and 70 meters from a vegan and gluten-free restaurant. Providencia is also home to some of Santiago's best restaurants and there are several local fruit markets within blocks of our apartment.

Today we walked the 3 kilometers or so to El Mercado Central where the fruit and veggie prices were the best we've seen. We came home with two kilos of peaches for $2000 CLP, ($3.53 CDN). We had lunch in one of the market's restaurants that was only "meh!" and was our most expensive meal so far, but we felt we had to re-visit the market for old-times sake, and are glad we did. When we left the restaurant, the owner warned us to wear our backpacks on our chests and not to flash cash around at the stalls outside. OK, now we remember why we spent the winter in Argentina.

In the end, the walk home, laden down with a chestpack full of peaches, was uneventful, although there's definitely a slight edge to this city. You can tell that even the locals are on guard and don't allow themselves to relax. Rarely do you see anyone holding a cell phone in their hands and I've seen NFL running backs hold a football more casually than some women hold their purses.

But hey, we're going to make the most of our last six days of summer weather until June rolls around. We have a beautiful view of the Andes and San Cristobal from our apartment and tomorrow morning we're going to hike the 7.7 kms up the 260 meters to the summit of the latter.

I don't think we'll ever love Santiago again as we did twelve years ago, but we're hoping we can still be good friends.Read more