Armed with my trusty phone and google maps and dragging a somewhat reluctant husband I confidently strode off in the direction of Plaza de Armas, the starting point of the tour. Richard has un poco confidence in my sense of direction and not without good reason, I have to admit, so after about 10 minutes he, rather theatrically, I thought, flicked out the map. A second later a young couple stopped and said ... Well something, but I'm guessing it was something like " can we help?"
" hablas Ingles?" we reply.
"Oh no no un poco"
After a conversation consisting of arm waving and head shaking , laughter and hand shaking,it turns out we were exactly on track - has to be a first for me. A few minutes later we found the orange umbrella people and the free walking tour. We were early of course, but only had a few minutes to fill before our lovely young guide announced we were about to start.
The carabineros looked rather fierce but were happy enough to pose with their dogs for tourists.
Orange umbrella of The Local Pulse free walking tours.
Plaza de Armas
We heard this beautiful haunting music drifting through the air,which I finally tracked down to this fellow. Not sure if this was a homemade flute,but we heard and saw thatas well on the walk.
It had rained during the night and the day dawned bright and clear - the only really good day weather wise. Perfect for walking and the rain had washed the haze away. The city of Santiago is nestled in a basin - the Andes looming behind and a ring of somewhat smaller hills around the rest of the city. A combination of mist and pollution is trapped in this basin and it means the mountains and the city are perpetually bathed in this haze. But we were lucky today.
Our young guide was Filipe and he was knowledgeable and passionate about his culture and history. And he was fun.
The first part of the walk was mainly history based as we toured the grand old stone buildings including the presidential palace that was bombed with tanks in 1973 by the military led by Augusto Pinochet. The incumbent president then, Salvadore Allende, apparently committed suicide - with an AK47!
This has been a very divisive event in Chile's history, as even today feeling runs high and you are for Pinochet who bought stability and economic recovery to Chile and at the same time committed the most appalling atrocities or you stand on the other side.
It was rather sobering to stand in front of the actual building that up until a few years ago, still bore the scars of the attack.
Filipe also explained to us the huge influence the Catholic Church has had on both the culture and the architecture. The Spanish bought Catholicism with them when they came 'a searching' for treasures 4 centuries ago.Even today 70% of the population is Catholic and you can hear the church bells peeling out through the city every day.
Filipe our guide for the tour.
Filipe, our tour guide,points out the 0,where all distances are measured from in Plaza de Armas.
Catedral Metropolitana - headquarters of Santiagos Archdiosese, and first Catholic Church temple in the country.
Chileans are very fond of all forms of sandwiches. This explains why Chile has the second highest bread intake in the world. Italian hotdogs are so named, not because of the style, but the colours. Red tomatoes, white mayonnaise and green avocados represent the colours of the Italian flag. Avocados are ever present in all meals, and really delicious
Palacio de La Moneda, the seat of the president of the Republic of Chile
Stray dog.
Presidential palace. Bombed in 1973, it has been restored to its former glory.
Private club. Not anyone can belong - you have to be a member of the Chilean aristocracy.
We were allowed in as far as the foyer. Rather grand, but not very comfortable, I thought.
St Lucia hill.
Bella Artes.
Rio Mapocho with the Andes in the background.
Along the way we stop at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolumbino, which housed a pre Hispanic art collection and mummies even older than the Egyptians - would dearly have loved to have seen that. We revisited this place a few days later with Will, but only for coffee. The boys were decidedly lukewarm about spending five dollars just to see some dead things.
When we were 'historied' out, we crossed the Mapocho river, to the markets. Wow what an assault of the senses. La Vega vegetable market was massive - crowds and crowds of people jostling through narrow walkways with fresh fruit and vegetables of all kinds on either side. Here we sampled fresh strawberries, an orange that was crossed with a pink grapefruit ( juicy, sweet and tart and fragrant) and tuna - the fruit of the prickly pear cactus ( sweet but slightly bland).
The orange umbrella served as a beacon in the crowds.
On to the flower market with beautiful flowers and scents. The flowers themselves appeared a little forced and it was hard to distinguish the fake from the real.The ladies of the party were presented with a flower by one of the many interesting characters there.
Our guide seemed to know everyone there. The market was established over a hundred years ago and is very much a family affair with generations manning their stalls.
There was live music and people dancing the Cueca - the national dance of Chile that is taught to all school children. It is a dance of love and courtship with the male representing a rooster and the woman a hen. Lots of stamping a swirling.
The big fat Moto, is himself a third generation stray of the Flores market.
Next was Mercado Central, the fish market, surprisingly unsmelly. All sorts of seafood including enormous sun fish, conga eel ( a delicacy ) reinetta, sea urchins octopus, king crab ( a king crab meal could cost 45,000 pesos)...Around the fish stalls, little restaurants were crammed cheek by jowl, owners standing in doorways touting for business. It seemed like every table was full but I'm sure they would have squeezed us in somewhere.
King crab
Back across the rio we arrived at our last stop,La Piojera, an iconic bar. It's name goes back to 1922, when Presidente Alessandri was invited and said, "did they seriously bring me to this piojera ( flea pit, unhealthy place). It serves the terremoto (earthquake) a cocktail of sweet pipeno wine, pineapple ice cream, and a shot of a red liqueur, like port, in a half liter glass. It certainly looked like a disaster and we just couldn't bring ourselves to partake in this particular cultural experience.
The story goes, after one particularly nasty earthquake when all the electricity went out, naturally the thing to do was go to a bar. Unfortunately the wine was warm and the ice cream was melting, so it was the most natural thing to do - combine the two.
This was the last stop of the tour, so after slipping Filipe ten grand ( worth every peso) and giving him a big hug because he was such a brilliant guide and also he has the same name as our brand new grandson, we scurried back to the apartment to meet up with Will for a late lunch.
Dead dog?
No, just content. One of the noticeable thing about Santiago for me, was the huge number of stray dogs, just lying around the streets, almost as if they were drugged. They were not the scungy , aggressive mongrels that you would expect, but healthy, well fed specimens like this one. They roamed the streets and carefully negotiated the traffic - some were even wearing little coats. According to Filipe, there were even little houses built for them to shelter in. Somebody must be caring for them.
Will was waiting for us in the foyer of our apartment block. After a very brief tour of our apartment,( it's a very brief apartment), and despite aching feet, we headed off in search of a likely watering hole. I was dubious that we would find one close by, but Will had noticed one on his walk here that he thought looked OK, and sure enough it was.
Will ordered the salmon and we shared a platter. On the platter were empanadas;a kind of meat pie with a dough crust with several different fillings including seafood; barbecued beef on skewers, the Chileans love their barbecues - " Not only a typical dish but a real gastronomic ritual"; several dipping sauces and some sopaipillas. We actually had sampled one of these on our walk. They are a small disk made of fried flour and are dipped in pebre,a sauce made of tomatoes, onions, chilli and coriander. The one we tried on the street was made of pumpkin and is known as picarones.
Our platter was served in a brown clay pottery dish, which is produced in a little town called Pomaire situated some 60 km west of Santiago. The wares are very common here and it would be an interesting place to visit. Maybe one day.Can't really remember much more after that, I'm guessing after we saw Will off we went to the supermarket, light tea and bed. Pretty pooped what with jet lag, excitement and exercise.
Just checking my notes now and there are a couple of things I meant to include.
As we passed through a clothing market I noticed the mannequins modelling the jeans etc., all had big bums. I have since observed that that is what they all are like. Certainly more realistic than our ones. And obviously the idea of a big bum is embraced.
The other story was told by Filipe on our walk. Chilean coffee is terrible. I don't know why, there's certainly no excuse for it, but in order to encourage people ( let me refine that - men) to drink more coffee they developed the concept of "Coffee with Legs". Walking around the city you will notice small Cafes with high standing tables on one leg. That's not the leg part. The waitresses are young attractive girls with low tops and short skirts and long legs! That's the leg part! They now have "New Coffee with Legs". The waitresses here wear bikinis! And for one minute only, every day at random times,they lock the door and... you guessed it! These bars are quite numerous once you know what to look for - black windows - and we had a bit of difficulty dragging the 3 Singaporean/Chinese men, on our tour, back to our party. Apparently some people (men) stay in there all day waiting for that one minute. ( The coffee is still terrible).
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