Tijuana lady where did you go?

After an eventful border crossing we arrived in our fifth South American country, in the Chilean capital of Santiago. Described as South America's least intimidating capital Santiago is a very pleasant place to spend a few days, though due to a variety of factors we ended up spending nearly a week there. When compared to its neighbours, Chile's wealth and economic stability is evident. It has a number of large shopping centres, a large financial district, many high rise buildings, an integrated transport system, a large number of petrol stations with shops in and, most excitingly of all, a proliferation of cash points -with cash in (though, as I found to my cost, some these do have a tendency to eat your bank card).

Santiago is not a boring city (see Sucre); it has six universties, five million people and a nightlife to match. Indeed, there are a few nice sights to see in Santiago too, along with a large number of good museums, but many of these didn't appeal to me. I'm ashamed to say if the blurb mentions “breath-taking ceramics”, “gorgeous textiles” or “modern engravings and sculptures” I avoid like the plague. Does that make me uncultured or unappreciative of pre-Columbian cultures? I don't know. I did, however, manage the whole National History museum, which was all in Spanish, and, in my opinion, skipped over the more interesting parts of Chilean history.

Impressive sites include the Plaza de la Constitution with the Palacio de la Moneda, housing the government, and the lovely Plaza de Armas with its beautiful Cathedral and even more impressive Post Office. I'm sad that I missed Neruda's Santiago house which I understand is great. A stroll through some of Santiago's parks and along the river Mapocho is also lovely. A trip that is definitely worth taking is the trip on the very steep funicular up San Cristobal's peak where we had ice cream and enjoyed the magnificent view across the city.

Despite it's charms I didn't fall in love with Santiago. It's certainly a fun city to visit, but I just can't think of anything that makes it stand out. It didn't have a personality that you warmed to instantly or, quite frankly, over time. And it just didn't really excite or intrigue me. I'm sure it as a lot to offer, and I'm sure there are many people who've loved it, but then there are probably many people who really love gorgeous textiles or breath-taking ceramics.

The other reason I didn't fall in love with Santiago is that my husband went missing for six hours. After several aborted searches and many hours waiting I went to our room to get Luke's passport details so I could contact the British embassy, where, I found Luke asleep, entirely unconcerned having snuck in through a side door to the hostel. [Not sure “entirely unconcerned” is quite fair! - Luke]

In contrast to Santiago I found nearby Valpariso, which we visited for a day trip, a lot more intriguing. It felt edgier and more exciting just to walk around, perhaps in part as it is one of the only South American towns not to fully endorse the grid system. Famous for being the arty heart of Chile, Valpariso has an array of weird coloured and oddly shaped buildings built steeply up a cliff. One of these houses was the home of Chilean Nobel Prize winning poet and leftist politician Pablo Neruda, which we enjoyed visiting because it was so fantastically bonkers and had magnificent views. Amongst it's winding and steep roads Valpariso also boasted an array of imaginative “street art”. I'm sorry we didn't spend longer there.

Unfortunately for the budget backpacker, Santiago has the prices you would expect to match such economic stability and cash points, with prices being similar to western Europe. This does make enjoying the variety of restaurants and bars more difficult -but we gave it a go! Santiago was the city where throughout our week we would part company with Scott, Frances, Vicky, Jen, Richard, Zara and Dave, (and Jo again). Needless to say there were a lot of goodbye drinks and meals.

We sampled a mixture of cusines at several restaurants in Santiago; a good Chinese in the centre of town, (discovered by Jo), decent local fayre in Chilean restaurant, Liguria, (chosen by Richard) which did great pasta and even better steak, a nice Italian in the eatery laden Bellavista one hungover afternoon and finally, my personal favourite was Galindo a fantastic local parilla which did fantastic food for all the family.

We also had some great nights in Santiago, including a fantastic barbecue night at our lovely hostel Ecohostel, a night drinking two for one cocktails in a selection of downbeat bars around Providencia, and a long night out which involved a number of bars in the Bellavista Barrio, an even larger number of cocktails, some increasingly offensive impressions, elaborate stories and nicknames for other travellers (including, Marylin, Side Show Bob and the previously unmentioned Lovejoy) and a delightful fish action from Zara. It finished somewhere in a club with a rather camp exit dance and a cab drive that I thought would result in death.

And so, having said our goodbyes and spent a week in Chile, Luke and I decided to return to Argentina, next stop Cordoba.

Posted by Louise