Santiago For a Day

November 15-16, 2007

Firstly, the bus trip from Bariloche across the Andes to Osorno, Chile was great. We wove up and down the mountains, through heaps of snow and past a few massive volcanos. (Inactive at the time - yes mum´s... we were nowhere near the recent eruption in northern Chile).

Davo´s trusty hiking shoes, that were well and truly past their glory days, somehow managed to stay in Osorno as we changed buses and began the overnight journey to Santiago, the capital of Chile.

Nearly everyone we´ve spoken to about Santiago has advised us to spend no longer than a few days there at most. It´s smoggy, dirty, unsafe and just another big city. But being the kind people we are we thought we´d give it a chance (for one day!) Our main reason of coming here was to catch a flight to La Paz in Bolivia.

We jumped off the bus at about 7.30am, dumped our packs in storage and hit the metro for peak hour. The trains came at least every minute and each one was jam packed. They even have security guards to help push people in so the doors can close. We waited for the fourth train and found a little bit of space. One friendly local, an attorney named Cristian, realised we were English speakers and began a conversation. Next thing we were getting a guided tour of the supreme court of Chile.

Cristian left us to our own devises after giving us a few tips of things to do and see, since he actually had some work to do for the day. We climbed a few hills which gave spectacular views of the city. Apart from the thick smog, it was a beautifully clear day. Even though we were looking out over masses of steel, concrete and glass, it still managed to appear beautiful in a way. (Maybe the bottle of wine we had with our picnic lunch helped!)

The Mapocho River has to be one of the fastest flowing suburban rivers in the world. We had flower races and Fi´s won. (Davo´s drowned in two seconds.) This episode was before lunch so we can´t blame the wine.

The Mercado Central was a bit of a letdown. It was fish day and the place reaked and was full of midges and stray dogs. But still worth a look around. The fresh strawberries and cherries we scored were sensational.

The only time we came close to being mugged was when a bunch of young school kids walked past us as we were resting in a park and wanted to stop and speak to us in English. They nagged their teacher to let them stay and chat, but ´hello´ and ´goodbye´ was about all they were allowed to get away with.

After a few fruit smooties and empanadas in the ´Bohemian´ area called Barrio Brasil, we were back on the busy metro and out to the airport to spend the night and catch our early morning flight to La Paz. It´s hard to sum up a place after barely a day, but we reckon Santiago is alright.