Merry Christmas!!!

Wed 22nd-Wed 29th Dec
After a non eventful six hour bus ride from La Serena, we arrived in Santiago, where we were to meet with an old school friend of Pete’s and his wife and new baby- Karim, Gigi and Renzo. Karim had supplied us with detailed instructions on how to use the metro before we left La Serena, so we were keen to see if it was as easy as he made out on the phone. It was thankfully!

Gigi and Karim

We got to Karim's place and met Gigi and Renzo. They have a lovely apartment and were offered our own room, the use of their swimming pool (which is great as it is pretty hot here), and a fantastic view of the Andes. I was pretty excited about that, as I didn’t realise that Santiago was so close to them and I didn’t think I would get to see them. They are big and grand, when they are not covered in smog.

Pizza cone

We spent the first few days doing nothing really. We went to a supermarket before Christmas which was insane!! The Chilians have NO trolley skills and have no qualms about cuttingh you off in the aisles. I learnt to close my eyes and let my trolley do the navigating. It’s the quick or the dead round these parts.

Chilean Chile dog

We went shopping one afternoon and Karim introduced us to Chilean hot dogs. No holds barred on these babies. The Chileans love to put avocado and mayonnaise on their traditional hot dog, we even had one with gherkins on it. They aren’t skimpy with the toppings either, as we bit into it all the filling fell out onto the plate. We think that the Chilian hotdog is so much better than its New York cousin, though its a tad confusing that call their so called 'traditional' hotdog the Italian. Go figure.

christmas breakfast

christmas day

Christmas was a quiet affair. We woke in the morning and had champagne with orange juice and ate chocolates for breakfast (can’t break with tradition) and received presents from Karim and Gigi- Chilean themed aprons. I don’t know if Pete knows how to use his. We spent the afternoon in and around the pool, then spent dinner with Gigi‘s family at her sisters place. It was a great evening with laughs all round. Gigi’s dad wasn’t shy taking the piss out of Pete, which I always love.
Everything seems to be done late here in Chile. They have daylight savings you see, and it doesn’t start to get dark here till 9:25pm. Therefore the Chilians don’t eat till 8 or 9. Christmas night it was ten pm then the turkey came out! Well it was actually steak but we didn't complain. The whole time shift was hard to get used to at first, but now we're comfortably waking up around midday, eating lunch at 3pm and having little snacks to keep us untill dinner. What we found amazing is that Karim doesn’t get to bed until midnight, and he must wake up at 6.30! This kind of lifestyle would kill us if we had to employ jobs into our routine as well!

Boxing day we went for lunch at a restaurant which serves lamb cooked over open flames. Its like a spit roast, but the meat has a rod through it and is resting to the side of the flame, not rotated over the top like I’m used to seeing. The restaurant was a bit smoky, but well worth smoke inhalation to see inventive cooking styles. When our lamb was served we were in awe of the two huge pieces sitting on our plates. We started off using cutlery but you had to revert to using primative techniques and rip the meat off the bone with our fingers. The meat was so tasty and more succulent then we ever expected. When I was feasting I kept thinking of my mum, and how much she would have been in heaven there. After licking our fingers we helped Karim with the rest of the meat left on the table, which was the best we have had in South America.
Pete and I finished the day by checking out the local shopping mall (dumb idea on boxing day) and cooling down at the local movie theatre.

On Monday we decided to venture downtown which is made easy as the Metro here is great, really easy to use and is essentially like Paris and London's. We thought we would go for a walk around the city starting with Palacio de la Moneda- the presidential palace which hoists the largest national flag we have ever seen.

We walked to the Plaza de Armas, the capitals main square where we had a sun screen stop. There was honestly not a cloud in the sky, and a themometer told us it was 36 degrees celsius. We hadn’t been in that type of heat for ages! We then walked to the arty district of Satiago where we stopped for some lunch, with cans of coke and loads of ICE on the menu!!!! Oh the joy and happiness frozen water can bring.

We carried on to Cerro Santa Lucia, a hill in the city that has a wonderful walk that allowed us to walk to the top and have a look at the city at 630 metres. The beautiful structure built around the hill used to serve as a convent and then a military station and still houses the most beautiful fountain and archway!! The restoration and care for the park is amazing and it was a truly lovely place to stumble across. We then went to go to the fine art museum, however it was closed on Mondays, so we opted for lying under a shady tree and read in a nearby park.

We had such sore feet from our day of walking. They were also dirty due to Chilie's pollution sticking to the sunscreen we applied to our feet. Pete’s feet looked like they belonged to a homeless person!

passed out on doggie snacks

Tuesday we went downtown again. This time we walked around trying to find a travel agent. Pete had looked up several the night before on the internet, but as we found the addresses we also found that the agencies no longer existed. We got the feeling that once you got into Santiago, you never could leave! We did find one travel agent that only dealt with flights so we got a little information there, but not what we were looking for as our budget at this late stage only allows for us to afford buses, trains, and peddy cabs.

After a feed of sushi that I had been hanging out for, we went up Cerro San Cristobal, a mountain that sits to the side of Santiago city. The mountain holds a tram and gondolas, which were unfortunately closed, museums and parks and a zoo- we had to keep with tradition and go there. It was a bit different than New York zoo as we got to see: monkeys, elephants, giraffes, lions, flamingos, emus, even llamas and kangaroos!! The zoo winds up the side of the mountain, and it seems that the animals there have the best real estate in the city, the view was pretty spectacular. The most exciting part was Pete finally being able to see a brown grizzly bear. The bear was quite social and was out of his cage having a nosey.

After climbing the hill to look around we hopped on the very steep tram to get us to the top of the mountain. Up the top not only was it a great view, but there was a church up their too- Ya soy La immaculate concepcion. A great monument of the virgin Mary was erected right up the top, and looks over the city and the open church below it. It took some faith getting to the top I don't mind saying.

We took the tram back down to the bottom of the mountain and walked to the metro, stopping along the way for a beer with all the trendy uni students in one of the bars that lined the street. And by a beer I mean a huge 1 litre size bottle.
At home that evening Karim was telling us little bits about the city while looking at our photos. He pointed out the telecommunications building and the fact that it looks just like a big old Motorola mobile phone. We didn't notice. He said it used to be the tallest building in Santiago, not by today's standards, and that it was since voted the city's ugliest. I personally think its great and a brilliant icon to have. It makes me laugh that it so obviously looks like a mobile phone and we didn't recognise. See if you can spot it.

Wednesday we got ourselves ready to leave for Vine del Mar, a city on the coast where we would all be spending new years eve and then a couple more days relaxing. Pete didn’t get up till almost 11am that morning. We're not counting sheep over here, we're counting lamas and it seems there are more to count. We went out for a coffee which was ordinary of course, yet they had the yummiest home made chocolates. After having an early dinner for a change we were off to Vina del Mar and 2011!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Santiago, Chile