Santiago city tour – 16th April.

A late arrival into Santiago last night, into Central CBD with driver Juvenal and guide Carolina. We were a bit dismayed at the state of the city, there was graffiti everywhere and the place looked depressing. Our hotel Fundador is quite old and we have a large room with a king and single – very comfortable for three.

Carolina met us at 9:30 for our city tour with Juvenal as driver.

We asked about the graffiti and learnt of the 2019 revolution- since which resulted in lots more graffiti being used to protest. The revolution was against the rise in public transport costs amongst other things. The city centre was basically shut down, people were killed, blinded by rubber bullets. The revolutionaries also took up protests against a range of other issues, the abuse of children by Catholic Priests for example.

A few random facts:

⁃ President Bulmer made the mint a presidential palace. Then it became presidential offices.

⁃ The current 36 yo president, Gabriel Boric, rides a push bike to work, with a two car security detail. Youngest ever at 36.

⁃ Military coup 73-1990 – Augustus Pinochet. Took over from Allende. Who died on the day of the coup, being unable to escape the presidential house- La Moneda.

⁃ Banco de central Chile was built from stone quarried from Cerro San Cristobal by the Spanish to combat the earthquakes and tremors.

⁃ We walked along a mural which is 3kms long in one of the main streets.

⁃ COVID was a real issue here, they were locked down with only 2, two hour blocks of time to go shopping each week. You had to apply and have paperwork to prove you were permitted to be out.

⁃ Carolina explained that they do breaky and lunch followed by Olse and dinner at 10pm.

⁃ Bicentennial park was created in 2010 to celebrate 200 years of Independence.

⁃ Lots of roads around the city are closed on Sunday to allow citizens to get out and ride bikes and run. This is part of an approach to combat obesity and get people active

We walked around the city and saw Palacio use La Moneda, the seat of the President and a number of ministries (formerly a mint).

Further on past many important buildings including the Statue of Allende – killed on day one of the Pinochet coup.

We wandered along part of the 3km mural.

Then along a few more streets to Plaza de Armas, a square surrounded by amazing old and new building, some great brass plaques and statues.

We then met a Juvenal again and drove onto Central Market.

Next stop was Bella Vista area, we also drove through a number of richer neighbourhoods and past the only golf club in city limits.

There is a sad story behind the heavily fortified police car above. Recently Santiago has had 23 policemen killed in the line of duty, so they are heavily protected and there are fears for their safety.

Back in the van with Juvenal on on to Bicentennial Parque where we saw some towers duck and blackbirds with yellow flashes, black headed swans and koi fish. At bicentennial park we had a skewer of dark choc covered strawberries (in the hope of breaking our 10 000 peso note) 7 strawberries shared. They were delicious. No luck breaking the note we had to tap our card.

There was much more but the ability to retain is not too good.

The tour ended by dropping us at the cable car/up San Cristobal hill and Carolina helped by coming in to assist in purchasing tickets and getting us sorted.

Lots of locals were walking up the hill through parklands as part of their Sunday relax. At the top is a statue of the Virgin Mary and some chapels and lots of religious features in a Sanctuary. There were places for reflection and lighting candles. Also walls for ashes maybe. Very religious hill with good views. Unfortunately the smog was a bit thick today. We could just see the Andes peeking out. We returned to street level via the funicular, which was also a bit of fun.

From San Cristobal where we lunched we then walked via Bella Vista for a cuppa coffee via Cerro Santa Lucia, which is the original fortress used by the Spanish to protect the city, it was taken from the indigenous natives.

More random facts:

– The whole of Santiago was laid out by the Spanish in squares following the pattern of the Inca’s who’d come before.

– Earthquakes occur about once every ten years and daily tremors are felt.

By the time we’d climbed Santa Lucia it was getting in to late afternoon. We wandered down the hill, heading towards Bella Vista for dinner at a place Carolina had recommended.

We strolled the streets, popped into the church that had been all closed up earlier for a look and through parks and past many buildings which were lit up for the night.

We didn’t make it to Bella Vista but a street stumbled across a street in Barrio (neighbourhood) Lastarria lined with fairly lights in trees and a market along the footpaths. We found an ice cream shop that also had some traditional Chilean meals. Very nice.

While eating a guy got dressed in his safety gear and jumped onto a motorised unicycle type thing and took off into the night.

On the way home we diverted to a bar off that same street – La Junta – for a drink before the walk home to the hotel.

Lots and lots of Grafitti and back to Hotel Fundador about 10pm. Time to download pics, shower and bed.