Santiago - Expectations

Expectations are a funny thing. We had expected to fall in love with Valparaiso and thought that Santiago would be a boring city. How wrong we were! We enjoyed Valparaiso but fell in love wirh the beautiful and elegant city of Santiago where we stayed either side of our trip to Easter Island .

We were surprised about how small the centre of Santiago is which means that although it has an excellent metro system, it is a very walkable city. Whilst Eva was at Spanish School, John took to the streets to explore.

Santiago is a beautiful city with stunning colonial architecture,  often rebuilt after frequent earthquakes. The ever present mountains provide a magnificent backdrop to an amazing place. To understand and get a feel for the city you have to walk its streets and hidden plazas.  In 3 days I walked over 30 kilometres. I sat  in beautiful, tranquil, parks and cafes, soaking up the essence of Santiago.  One day we took a 4 hour walking tour which showed us the main sights.  We learnt about the history of  Chile and the difficult years of the dictatorship.  We toured elegant squares and gardens but some of the best parts were the insights into the city's culture.  

The Santa Lucia hill is where it is traditional for young couples to skip school to spend the day together at the park. Our guide proudly told us that his grandmother had done this although he did not confess to having done this himself.

We also learnt about coffee with legs. Apparently in the past coffee was not popular so to improve sales, cafes employed scantily dressed waitresses to serve and talk to the customers. Cafes would fight to get the most popular waitresses.  Whilst they still exist, much more extreme versions have developed.

One afternoon we went to San Cristoball Hill, the highest point in the city with amazing views. There is an impressively high funicular train to take you to the top and having done many in Valparaiso,  we did not consider it a problem.  Having taken ages to work out the price, we were surprised it was cheaper until we discovered that we had been given a senior rate, outrageous but  cheaper.  Short of time we agreed to get off the train half way up, however as we queued to come back down  we discovered you have to go up to the top to get the train back down.  We were rewarded with some stunningly awesome views of the city

On hindsight,  Santiago would have warranted a longer stay.