Ok, we have been out of the country for a little over a month now, so it is probably time for me to make an appearance on the blog. Let me rewind; back to the beginning of our journey. We left balmy Chicago (100 degrees F) and plane hopped our way down to chilly Santiago (about 32 degrees!). It was quite a shock, especially after a 14 hour flight, and arriving at 3am. BUT, it was my first time to REALLY leave the country (Canada doesn’t count, right?) so I thought that every little detail was fascinating. We got over that pretty quickly when out trip to the luggage carousel yielded only one bag. Yes, we discovered that TACA airlines was the discount choice for a reason.
So, we headed through customs, out into the chilly Chilean night. We took a cab straight to our hostel in Bella Vista, the hip part of town. At this hour, in complete exhaustion and darkness, we weren’t able to appreciate our surroundings at all. A sleepy attendant lets us into La Chimba, a brightly colored and festive looking hostel. We are led to our room, and told ‘Buenas Noches’. The room had a nice big bed, nice big window, and complete lack of heat. It was a nice 30 some-odd degrees in our room, just like outside! The whole hostel was heated by 3 measly space heaters. We were to learn in the coming days that it is very rare for Chilean homes to have any sort of central heat, despite pretty chilly winter nights. Interestingly enough, everywhere in Argentina has natural gas heating thanks to an abundance of the resource. Thank God for the down sleeping bags that I insisted on bringing!
We slept into the late morning, and then decided to head out and explore our surroundings. We exited the hostel, took a right, walked half a block, and looked to our left (the east). There they were, right there! I could almost reach out and touch them! The big, bad Andes Mountains. Huge, rugged lines of rock and snow, looking impossibly close! I knew that Santiago was bordered by the mountains, but had no idea that they literally formed the eastern border of the city.
That day, we walked around our eclectic little neighborhood, enjoying some Empanadas de Jamon y Queso (awesome fried ham and cheese sandwiches), and went to the top of the beautiful Cerro San Cristobal.
As I mentioned, we arrived in Santiago at night, so we weren’t able to see much of anything. One thing that stood out to me as our plane came in low over the massive city (biggest city I have ever visited) was that there were several circular areas in the middle of the city with no lights. I guessed that they we parks. And parks they were!
The city of Santiago is almost completely flat. There are a few steep hills rising out of the middle of nowhere, and these have all been designated as parks. It’s as if the people didn’t feel like building on any slopes, so everytime they encountered on of these hills (cerros), that said “ehhh, let’s make that a park”. I’m glad they did, because Cerro San Cristobal gave us the most impressive view of the city. This massive hill rises 300m (1000ft) above the rest of the city, and serves as home to the city Zoo, gardens, markets, and a massive statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the top. We walked maybe halfway up, marveling at the juxtaposition of palm trees, bromeliads, cacti, and jagged snowcapped mountains. From there, we caught a cable car up to the top. There, we took in the panoramic view of the city. Santiago is bordered not only by the Andes in the east, but by the Cordón de Chacabuco range to the north and the Chilean Costal Range to the west. The Cerro provided a breath taking view of all of this, plus a sense of the scale of the city in the clean, crisp air (up above the smog).
In the next few days, we also climbed Cerro Santa Lucia, and hill more in the heart of the city. This smaller hill is home to a beautiful colonial building with a high tower lookout at the top, giving yet another amazing panoramic view of the city. Sights like these were our favorite part of Santiago. The rest…was not so great. More to follow!
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