Santiago Impression
We arrived at Santiago international airport at 8 AM this morning. The hotel picked us up. Mike had to pay 131 usds for entry fee as a reciprocal procedure since US does this to Chilean citizens.
It was much colder than Buenos Aires since now we are in the mountainous areas. The first scenary that wowed me was the snow capped Andean mountain in early morning mist as the backdrop of the highway. When we got out to walk around later the long mountain range could be seen almost anywhere in the city.
On first impression, I thought the Santiago streets were much cleaner than those of BA. There was not much dog waste on the roads while in BA, everywhere on the sidewalks, in the parks, there was dog poop. The Portenos love dogs but they do not clean after them on the streets.
We are in the Providencia neighborhood. Down our street, there is a very quiet and pretty neighborhood of well maintained, upper middle class houses. We walked about 20 minutes to the Parque Metropolitano (metropolitan park). Its summit offers a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately the funicular that was supposed to zip us up to the peak was out of order so we opted to hike the six kilometers to the peak. It was getting warm and sunny and we encountered numerous cyclers, joggers up and down the hill on our waving road up. The view was getting better as we ascended. We decided to cut through the road for cars and looked for shortcuts in the hiking trails on the side of the hill. We hiked a very steep trail following a pipeline in the woods for about 20 minutes when we finally hit the main road again, only to find us detoured to the electric towers instead of the peak where the Virgin Mary statue stood.
Eventually we made it to the summit. There was a church and the statue of Virgin Mary opened her arms to welcome us. The view over the city was breathtaking. Even though it was an overcast day, it was all worth the 2 hour hike to see the majestic Andean snowy peaks afar. Most of them over six thousand meters high. Aconcagua peak was the tallest and stood a 6920 meters high.
We took the park bus down the mountain and headed towards Plaza de Armas where most of Santiago´s points of interests are. There were many colonial style buildings near the plaza. We visited the Cathedral of Santiago and had lunch in an Italian restaurant. Seafood is great in Chile, a good change from eating so much beef in Argentina.
Our hotel staff recommended Divertemento Chileno for traditional Chilean food. It was in the park near its gate. We tracked all the way back in the evening. Mike ordered grilled mixed fish, all fresh. I had Cazuela de Ave (country style chicken and veggie soup) and seafood salad. The soup came out in a bowl larger than the largest size of ¨Pho¨. I almost fell over my seat when I saw it. I was provided with a gigantic spoon larger than my mouth but the first spoonful sent me straight to food heaven. I did my best and drank most of the soup and finished all the veggies. There was bits of rice in the broth.
For dessert, Mike had Ponderaciones, crisp pastry wrapping vanilla ice cream. I had a Port Flan with Cognac soaked prunes.
The first day of Chile turned out to be great. I´d say Santiago is non pretentious, hearty, pedestrian friendly, metro easy, clean, and friendly.
It was much colder than Buenos Aires since now we are in the mountainous areas. The first scenary that wowed me was the snow capped Andean mountain in early morning mist as the backdrop of the highway. When we got out to walk around later the long mountain range could be seen almost anywhere in the city.
On first impression, I thought the Santiago streets were much cleaner than those of BA. There was not much dog waste on the roads while in BA, everywhere on the sidewalks, in the parks, there was dog poop. The Portenos love dogs but they do not clean after them on the streets.
We are in the Providencia neighborhood. Down our street, there is a very quiet and pretty neighborhood of well maintained, upper middle class houses. We walked about 20 minutes to the Parque Metropolitano (metropolitan park). Its summit offers a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately the funicular that was supposed to zip us up to the peak was out of order so we opted to hike the six kilometers to the peak. It was getting warm and sunny and we encountered numerous cyclers, joggers up and down the hill on our waving road up. The view was getting better as we ascended. We decided to cut through the road for cars and looked for shortcuts in the hiking trails on the side of the hill. We hiked a very steep trail following a pipeline in the woods for about 20 minutes when we finally hit the main road again, only to find us detoured to the electric towers instead of the peak where the Virgin Mary statue stood.
Eventually we made it to the summit. There was a church and the statue of Virgin Mary opened her arms to welcome us. The view over the city was breathtaking. Even though it was an overcast day, it was all worth the 2 hour hike to see the majestic Andean snowy peaks afar. Most of them over six thousand meters high. Aconcagua peak was the tallest and stood a 6920 meters high.
We took the park bus down the mountain and headed towards Plaza de Armas where most of Santiago´s points of interests are. There were many colonial style buildings near the plaza. We visited the Cathedral of Santiago and had lunch in an Italian restaurant. Seafood is great in Chile, a good change from eating so much beef in Argentina.
Our hotel staff recommended Divertemento Chileno for traditional Chilean food. It was in the park near its gate. We tracked all the way back in the evening. Mike ordered grilled mixed fish, all fresh. I had Cazuela de Ave (country style chicken and veggie soup) and seafood salad. The soup came out in a bowl larger than the largest size of ¨Pho¨. I almost fell over my seat when I saw it. I was provided with a gigantic spoon larger than my mouth but the first spoonful sent me straight to food heaven. I did my best and drank most of the soup and finished all the veggies. There was bits of rice in the broth.
For dessert, Mike had Ponderaciones, crisp pastry wrapping vanilla ice cream. I had a Port Flan with Cognac soaked prunes.
The first day of Chile turned out to be great. I´d say Santiago is non pretentious, hearty, pedestrian friendly, metro easy, clean, and friendly.
posted by Koshka at 10/13/2009
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