February 16-17, 2014- Sun/Mon, California to Chile

Sunday February 16-17, 2014

BOTTOM LINE:
Flew from LAX to Santiago, Chile via Lima, Peru
City tour of Santiago

NOTEWORTHY:
For being the capital of one of the wealthiest countries in South America we have observed a lot of dusty unpaved roads, stray dogs and graffiti on our ride in to town from the Santiago airport.

BACK STORY:
Our week home from our trek to Australia and New Zealand was a whirlwind and now sits as a blur in our memory.  Going through three months of mail, having dentist and doctor appointments, doing laundry and yard work, repairing a broken sprinkler line and repacking were among the "musts" to do.  Our highlight was reuniting with our girls, my Mom and sister Jan, our close neighbors and our family that is living in our house...which took great care in feeding us meals and welcoming us back.

Having Leslie and Lawrence living in LA made for a nice visit and farewell on Sunday, February 16th at 10:30am.  We flew to Santiago, Chile via Lima, Peru and arrived just as the morning sun began to peek over the rugged Andes Mountains.  Familiar tulle fog settled in the low ravines of the area giving a blue hue to the morning light.  We were told by our driver that the days had been around 90 degrees with cool evenings...similar to the summers in the Sacramento Valley where we call home.

Felipe was our assigned tour guide.  The commute traffic into Santiago was quite heavy so the driver took an alternate route through the back streets of a poor residential area.  Colorful graffiti was on every paintable surface.  Houses were modest adaptations of dwelling forms having no yards but surrounded by fortresses of metal and concrete fencing.  Stray dogs ran solo or in packs, sniffing, itching, and sleeping wherever they chose...obviously no leash laws. Garbage was piled in one huge communal heap per block...some of which was strewn by the dogs hunting for sustenance.

In clear contrast we crossed a river and entered the "Barrio Lastarria" filled with art, museums, galleries, bars and sidewalk cafes.  Our small boutique Hotel Lastarria was in the Burrough.  It was built in the 1920's as a town home.

Having had no sleep on the flight, thankfully the hotel management had our room ready within an hour of our 9:00am arrival.  Every lavish amenity was considered and ready for us...king bed with fluffy down comforter, robes and slippers, shady private patio leading to a lap pool and veranda of the hotel's cafe, wifi, slate lined shower and free breakfast.  We settled in for a four hour nap at which time we dressed and met our guide for an historical tour of the city.

Hotel Lastarria

Hotel's backyard

Our room

Santiago is the cosmopolitan capital of Chile and sits about one hour east of the Pacific coast The Andes Mountains are further to the east.  Santiago has a colorful history, and is a thriving success politically and economically.

Bruce with guide, Filipe

The city was founded by the Spanish conquistador, Pedro de Valdevia in 1541. Our first stop was the town square that he had laid out (Plaza de Armas) to be the heart of the newly formed city.  This spot is where the oldest Cathedral Church of Santiago is.  The cathedral was rebuilt in 1748 replacing four others which had been destroyed by earthquakes or fire.

Cathedral

Cathedral main altar

Animal altar for personal pets!

 Near the Cathedral is the Central Post Office, National History Museum, the former Spanish Royal Court, and the government palace (La Moneda Palace).

Government offices

Palace entry guards

The city streets were very clean (workers sweeping with brooms) and tree lined with Spanish colonial architecture and many French inspired buildings.   "Wall Street" as we know it exists, bustling with financial professionals.

European influences

A secured financial district

After errands to find a bank, adapters for our electronics and a SIM card for Bruce's phone we circled back to our hotel.  We were both hungry from not having eaten since our flight so we headed out on foot to find a neighborhood restaurant.  We luckily were staying in a safe area which had a plethora of options.  We settled into an outdoor cafe on a quaint plaza where we sat to the side of a small fountain and could people watch.

The meal started with a Pisco Sour to cheer our traveling buds from our Peru trip two years earlier. The food was exquisite with the famous grilled beef of Chile, a parmesan risotto and grilled fresh veggies.

It's five o'clock somewhere!??

Grilled beef, veggies and Parmesan risotto

Returning to the hotel we set our alarms for 5am. We had a 7am pickup with a return shuttle to the airport for our flight south.