The Blaus - South America and Europe

12 del Marzo - Santiago, Chile

Thanks to Steve Golik, we now have a link to our photo album from this blog, so check it out below...

Our first day in Santiago was sweltering hot, so we did as much sight-seeing as humanly possible when we arrived in the afternoon. We toured parts of the city on foot and explored Barrio Brazil (the area that we are staying in), Bellavista (a quaint neighborhood situated at the base of a hill, where the city´s nightlife flourishes), and Providencia (the upscale residencial part of the city). We walked to the top of a hill in the middle of the city, which has a castle built on it. From there we were able to see a 360 degree vista of the sprawling city and it is much bigger than we imagined. It is the 5th largest city in all of South America and 85% of Chileans reside here. We ate dinner at a Chinese food restaurant, which was a nice treat and a welcome change of cuisine.

Our time here in Santiago is short (two days), as we are on our way to San Pedro De Atacama and then on to Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia, and we needed to utilize some of the time to prepare for our journey to less developed destinations. We had a few errands to take care of--stocking up on toiletries and other supplies, replacing Billy´s sunglasses (gafas del sol), and getting haircuts. Neither of us have had haircuts in months, and we were starting to look a bit shaggy. Our Chilean friend at Cafe Vinilo in Valparaiso said that Billy looked like Pete Sampras, with his long hair and beard. So began the adventure of the corta pelo, which was very interesting because the woman that cut our hair didn´t speak any English. We used pictures and sign language and were able to achieve shorter hair, but perhaps not the styles we wanted. Mission accomplished anyway. We went to a shopping mall here to shop for sunglasses, and we were surprised at how much the malls here are like our malls at home. This was comforting and depressing all at once. It was easy to shop at a place like that with all the familiar conveniences of home, but it also felt void of unique character and culture. Unfortunately, we would say that about most of what we´ve seen of Santiago. Perhaps if we had more time here, we would have a different opinion.

One thing that is markedly different about shopping here is the caja phenomenon. You pick out items that you want to purchase and then you are given a bill, which you take to the caja which is in another area of the store. Caja literally means box, but the word is used to refer to the cash register and sometimes ATMs. Some purchasing transactions in Argentina worked this way (buying ice cream, buying ferry tickets to Uruguay), but it seems that this is the standard here in Chile.

We wanted to see more of the city on our second day here, so we skipped the wineries, because they are located outside of the center (some 40 kilometers away) and they require reservations (which we didn´t have time to secure in advance). We had a chance to visit two museums here--Museo de Bellas Artes and the cultural center that featured a Chilean photographer´s black and white photos. The Museo de Bellas Artes was being renovated, so only part of it was open to the public, but this meant that we didn´t have to pay the admission fee (very nice). The Museum had two exhibits--Chilean paintings and comtemporary art (sculpture and mixed media). The building itself was a work of art, with very ornate metal work everywhere and a glass roof that illuminated the museum beautifully (reminiscent of Musee D`Orsay). We walked to the central market afterward to try fresh fish for lunch, but it was too expensive and too much of a hassle (with aggressive waiters trying to persuade us to sit and eat at their restaurants). Instead we ate lunch at an eclectic little cafe that offered a lovely menu del dia for just $3 US each. Great atmosphere and really good food.

After lunch the rain began to fall, so we put on our rain gear and stormed through the wet city streets until we found the cultural center that was once the train station. The center hosted a small photography exhibit that we had heard about by an artist named Alexis Diaz. The work was beautiful and consisted of images of very Chilean scenes and very iconic political, historical, everyday life, street and subway imagery.

We took the subway back to our hostel to avoid being splashed by more water from the flooded streets as cars sped past. The subway in Santiago is well planned and extremely easy to use. Everything in Santiago is modern and developed. We were shocked by the convenience and modernity of the bus station when we first arrived in the city. This set the tone of everything that would follow here. It was much like an airport at home in a multilevel building with piped-in muzak, fast-food restaurants, organized lines with queuing passengers.

Chileans have very typically Latin American physical traits, most have dark hair and eyes and olive skin. In Argentina we´d see a lot more blondes, brunettes and people with lighter color eyes (often blue). When we walk down the street, especially when wearing our backpacks, we often hear passersby yelling "Hello! How are you!" The overzealous tone is not inviting a reply or even directed at us. Instead it is anonymous and strange. Not sure why this goes on, other than the fact that we stand out as foreigners and they want to let us know that.

The Spanish in Chile is spoken much quicker than in Argentina--similar to the pace in which everything else moves. There is much more English spoken in the cities that we have been to, which makes travel much easier. They drink Nescafe (instant coffee) here instead of brewed coffee, but you can still get a cortado here (thank goodness). The infrastructure here seems to be more healthy than in Argentina (well maintained roads and highways, nicer buildings, modern transportation, etc.). It appears that the economy is prospering, and people are working, making decent wages, and paying their share of taxes to keep things growing. It seems like everything here is more expensive than in Argentina, save wine (at least the one bottle of Concha y Toro Cabernet Sauvignon we bought in Valparaiso was very well priced). We will do a little more work to continue our investigation of the price of wine during the rest of our time here in Chile.

posted by The Blaus @ 8:00 PM