Santiago is a Great City, Just Not for New Year's
We've arrived in Santiago, our penultimate destination for this trip. Time has flown.
Em and I changed our schedule around to make sure that we'd get to Santiago on December 31st to celebrate New Year's Eve in the city. We'd read internet articles and talked to family whom had all previously experienced the changing year there in the past and we were thus excited to see for ourselves. Turns out that we either did it wrong, or it's just not my thing.
Having shown up the morning of the end of the year, we didn't really have a clue where to go or what to do for the night. We figured we could just kind of find something that day. Turns out this doesn't really work out too well. Most things in the city shut down around 5 or 6 pm on New Year's Eve and don't open for one to three more days (we found this out later).
Since it was still early when we arrived, we decided to do one of the free walking tours to help get acquainted with the city. Our AirB&B was centrally located and walking to the Plaza de Armas was pretty simple. We met our guide, Valentina, and preceded on a four hour jaunt through the downtown and some of the outer suburb areas. Through the tour, we learned a lot about the history of the city, the location of a bunch of places that we would go back and visit over the next few days, and where the tourists go to eat local fare.
At the culmination of the tour, Valentina informed everyone, that except for a few fancier restaurants, the entire city would essentially shut down for the next two days and therefore if anyone wanted to eat, they should grab some groceries within the next few hours. This caused a small change in our plans and had us racing to the nearest supermarket to acquire provisions.
Valentina was not wrong. By 5 pm, the streets were deserted and the shops all locked up. New Year's dinner was home cooked by me and served with some nice local wine; not too shabby.
At 10:30 we set out with the other million or so in denziens in the area to find a spot to watch the fireworks from. We were told that the best location was at a tower about a mile away, so we started walking; until we ran into the barricade. Turns out that the city likes to separate its population during New Year's Eve and just erects fences and manned barricades around certain areas. We attempted to walk around the pen to get through to the tower, but gave up after 45 minutes of swimming upstream through the throngs of people and not finding an exit. We meandered back to the main street where a huge crowd was gathered and you could still get a clear view of the tower and sky surrounding it.
I think this will be the last year that I ever go anywhere with huge crowds for special events again. For an introvert like me, the last hour of 2016 was a nightmare. There had to be at least 100,000 people all squished together in the street waiting in anticipation for the "ball drop". As the minutes ticked down, more people crammed together and my personal space bubble went from a foot to half a foot to a few inches to a claustrophobic inducing few centimeters. There were happy, dancing, selfie-taking, popper blowing, silly string throwing people everywhere; and they were more than happy to be smushed into each other; me on the other hand, not so much.
The fireworks, when they finally started at midnight, were wonderful, but I was way too "let me out of here!" by that time to truly enjoy them. Em had a blast and thought it was hilarious watching all the crushed together people throwing glitter, silly string, and bubbles on each other. As soon as the last firework fizzled out, I grabbed Em's hand and hightailed it out as fast as the crowd would allow (which was a tortuous shuffle step of a few feet per minute). I didn't breath easy until we were safely ensconced in our room. Big crowds of hyped up people are definitely NOT my thing.
New Year's Day, like Christmas Day a week past, also happened to be a Sunday. We knew that some things wouldn't be open but I guess we weren't expecting a complete ghost town. We wandered from our place back through the Plaza de Armas and onward to the Fish Market, passing few people, and no open businesses. The Fish Market was open (all the guide books state that it's a New Year's tradition to come here and have a bowl of fish stew to help abate any lingering hangovers), but we weren't really hungry enough for anything there at the moment. We meandered around, took some photographs, made some locals' day trying to get an Americano for Em (these are not common and apparently not readily understood when explained), and moved on.
Outside the market is the main throughway, Cardenal Jose Maria Caro, which follows the Mapocho river. Along one of the overpasses we found a dozen or so women selling food from their shopping cart stalls. Always crazy enough for street food, we wandered over and were happy to see it as something yummy. The women were selling a fish and octopus cerviche over noodles, with some roasted corn and onions thrown in for good measure (we later learned that these women were Peruvian and not Chilean). It was pretty damn tasty. There was also a cart where we picked up some sort of desert that tasted like a combination of bread pudding and mochi.
We followed the river for a bit and ended up in Forestal Park, outside the Bella Arts Center (Fine Arts Museum), a museum that was unfortunately closed for the day. The park was peaceful and we relaxed for a bit before continuing onward towards the Santiago Metropolitan Park, which is Santiago's version of Griffith Park if anyone has ever been to LA. Turns out everyone else had the same idea as us. Where previously we'd only seen a few handfuls of people, there were throngs here.
The main reason we wandered over to the park is that Valentina had told us that there was a funicular and a newly opened gondola that would take you to the top of Cerro San Cristobal (within the park) where you could see the statute of Immaculate Conception (a giant statue of Mary) that overlooked the city and get some spectacular 360 views. Since we were on the side of the funicular, we joined the crazy line with the other 100 or so people and spent the next hour inching our way to the entrance (through a small castle facade).
The funicular ride was fun and harrowing as it goes almost vertically up the side of the mountain. It deposits you just shy of the apex. From there you can take photographs, buy trinkets, get a bite to eat, or continue up past the art collection of individually designed crosses, through the small outdoor theater, and to the base of the statue of Immaculate Conception.
After admiring the view for a while, we attempted to find the walking path back down the mountain, with the goal of ending up at the zoo (which was near the bottom, by the start of the funicular). The so helpful information people directed us to the wrong path and we ended up following a main road down a few miles and coming out on the complete other side of the park. While the zoo was a lost opportunity at this point, we did get to pass by some more great viewpoints, a couple of parks, another closed museum, and we were able to follow the path of the gondola we had opted not to take. This side of the park appeared to be in a more affluent part of the city. The streets were wide and tree lined, the homes large, and the inhabitants of a different breed. We walked for a bit, admiring the homes and area, noting once again that all the businesses and restaurants were closed, and eventually arriving at Avenida Providencia, where we caught a bus home.
As Monday rolled around, we expected things to open up again and were excited to see the city awake. This turned out to be a foolish hope; it appears that Santiagoians like to take an extended weekend for the New Year. One thing we knew for sure was going on was the changing of the guards at the Palace de la Moneda (means mint, but is the presidential palace). Every other day the guards put on a show for the tourists that involves marching, horses, and music. It was supposed to start at 10 am as it was a weekday, but I guess they were still thinking it was a weekend cause they began at 11.
We watched the show for a while before leaving to enter the museum below La Moneda (the only museum in the city open on a Monday). The museum was having a special exhibit on Picasso with many of his pieces from the Paris National Art Museum on tour. While Picasso may not be my favorite artist (or even top 100), I can admire his technique and creativity for what it was and the movement it started.
Em has been dying to go to a Chilean winery after hearing so many good things about the wine here and so we had booked a bike vineyard tour for the afternoon. The tour met at an older vineyard, Vina Cousino Macul, at the outskirts of the city and was set to have us bike through the vineyard, take a tour of the processing center, and sample a few varieties. What ended up happening is that we took a series of metros and then walked a few kilometers to be meet by the bike tour guide's apologetic face as he conveyed the the winery was participating in the extended holiday weekend and therefore there would be no tour this day.
Disappointed, but deciding not to waste what was left of the day, we backtracked to the heart of the city to visit the general cemetery. Before the creation of the cemetery, the dead were buried all over the place or if they weren't Catholic, they were just thrown off the side of Santa Lucia Hill. Obviously, this lead to a lot of social, political, and hygienic problems.
The idea of a general cemetery was created to fix these problems and was originally thought up as a "Parthenon;" a place for all the heros of the Chilean Nation to rest and for everyone else to pay homage to them. All of the main leaders of the country (with the except of two), are buried there, as well as many artists, writers, and members of influential families. Many of these families have exorbitant mausoleums.
A wall was built to deleaniate the more affluent from the common and the distinction is very apparent. Whereas there are massive crypts on one side, with tree lines alleyways, the other side is home to what I've taken to calling apartment complexes for the dead. These are two and three storey buildings filled with coffin sized cubby holes. Some of the cubby holes have awnings or trinkets or vases of flowers surrounding them and some are blank and dilapidated.
Tuesday was our last day in Santiago and the one day where we got to see what the city looks like when its four million residents aren't hiding out in their homes. It was also our only day to explore some of the city's extensive collection of museums. We made the most of the day and visited the Chilean National History Museum, the Memorial and Human Rights Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Bella Arts (Fine Arts) Museum/SAM (Contemporary Art Museum) (housed in same building). Santiago proscribes to the same philosophy as London and some other major cities, in that all their national museums are free; making the experience even better.
We also managed to squeeze in a lunch at the Centro Market to try the fish stew that most people enjoy on New Year's Day morning. The stew was palatable, but nothing to write home about. Em's garlic shrimp were pretty tasty though, once they showed up. Originally they had brought her some octopus dish and explained that that's what we had ordered. Regardless of whether they heard calarami (squid) or camerones (shrimps) in Spanish, neither sound anything like pulpa (octopus), so the error was not on our end.
Of all the museums that we visited, the Memorial and Human Rights Museum is probably the most visited and most poignant. This museum is dedicated to explaining the dictatorship lead by Antonio Pinochet that was Chile's government from 1973 until 1990 and the atrocities committed during that period against the Chilean people. The exhibits are a mix between visual, auditory, and interactive, and provoke much contemplation.
Due to it being summertime now in Santiago, it doesn't get dark until 9:30 or 10 and so with some extra time after the closing of the museums and dusk, Em and I decided to climb to the top of Santa Lucia Hill. The crest of Santa Lucia Hill was where Pedro de Valdivia declared the city conquered in 1541. Currently the hill is a nice city park with a series of haphazard staircases that eventually lead to Fort Hidalgo, the remaining one of the two forts built in 1820 as defensive points for the city. The fort looks like a mini castle, and from the top turret, one is able to get some great views of the city. The fort itself did not appear to be open to the public.
While on the walking tour a few days previous, Valentina had told us about the native dish, Pastel de Choclo (sweet corn pie). This dish is traditionally made with pino - a mixture of ground beef and onions sauted together - mixed with olives, raisins, and egg, and then covered with a mashed sweet corn topping and all baked together in a ceramic pot. It's supposed to be the South American version of Shepherd's Pie and a must try dish.
Viva la Vida is the only restaurant that make a vegetarian version of Pastel de Choclo, where they substituted soy meat for the pino. We'd come back to the Bellavista area three different nights in an effort to find them open so that we could try this dish (they'd been enjoying the holiday too much to open their doors). Turns out that in the vegetarian version, it's not just the pino they take out, but all the rest of the extras as well; the dish we got was an entire pot of corn mush with some questionable soy product in it. After three days of wandering back to the Bellavista area to try this, I was severely disappointed.
At the restaurant we also decided to try Terremoto (Spanish for Earthquake). This is a concoction where crappy wine and grenadine syrup are mixed together and then a scoop or two of pineapple ice cream is added to the mixture and allowed to slowly melt into it. The end result is instantly rotten teeth and diabetes. It was even too much for my constant sugar cravings.
Are last day in Santiago was a success in terms of cultural experiences, but a fail in terms of food.
Em and I changed our schedule around to make sure that we'd get to Santiago on December 31st to celebrate New Year's Eve in the city. We'd read internet articles and talked to family whom had all previously experienced the changing year there in the past and we were thus excited to see for ourselves. Turns out that we either did it wrong, or it's just not my thing.
Having shown up the morning of the end of the year, we didn't really have a clue where to go or what to do for the night. We figured we could just kind of find something that day. Turns out this doesn't really work out too well. Most things in the city shut down around 5 or 6 pm on New Year's Eve and don't open for one to three more days (we found this out later).
Since it was still early when we arrived, we decided to do one of the free walking tours to help get acquainted with the city. Our AirB&B was centrally located and walking to the Plaza de Armas was pretty simple. We met our guide, Valentina, and preceded on a four hour jaunt through the downtown and some of the outer suburb areas. Through the tour, we learned a lot about the history of the city, the location of a bunch of places that we would go back and visit over the next few days, and where the tourists go to eat local fare.
At the culmination of the tour, Valentina informed everyone, that except for a few fancier restaurants, the entire city would essentially shut down for the next two days and therefore if anyone wanted to eat, they should grab some groceries within the next few hours. This caused a small change in our plans and had us racing to the nearest supermarket to acquire provisions.
Valentina was not wrong. By 5 pm, the streets were deserted and the shops all locked up. New Year's dinner was home cooked by me and served with some nice local wine; not too shabby.
At 10:30 we set out with the other million or so in denziens in the area to find a spot to watch the fireworks from. We were told that the best location was at a tower about a mile away, so we started walking; until we ran into the barricade. Turns out that the city likes to separate its population during New Year's Eve and just erects fences and manned barricades around certain areas. We attempted to walk around the pen to get through to the tower, but gave up after 45 minutes of swimming upstream through the throngs of people and not finding an exit. We meandered back to the main street where a huge crowd was gathered and you could still get a clear view of the tower and sky surrounding it.
I think this will be the last year that I ever go anywhere with huge crowds for special events again. For an introvert like me, the last hour of 2016 was a nightmare. There had to be at least 100,000 people all squished together in the street waiting in anticipation for the "ball drop". As the minutes ticked down, more people crammed together and my personal space bubble went from a foot to half a foot to a few inches to a claustrophobic inducing few centimeters. There were happy, dancing, selfie-taking, popper blowing, silly string throwing people everywhere; and they were more than happy to be smushed into each other; me on the other hand, not so much.
The fireworks, when they finally started at midnight, were wonderful, but I was way too "let me out of here!" by that time to truly enjoy them. Em had a blast and thought it was hilarious watching all the crushed together people throwing glitter, silly string, and bubbles on each other. As soon as the last firework fizzled out, I grabbed Em's hand and hightailed it out as fast as the crowd would allow (which was a tortuous shuffle step of a few feet per minute). I didn't breath easy until we were safely ensconced in our room. Big crowds of hyped up people are definitely NOT my thing.
New Year's Day, like Christmas Day a week past, also happened to be a Sunday. We knew that some things wouldn't be open but I guess we weren't expecting a complete ghost town. We wandered from our place back through the Plaza de Armas and onward to the Fish Market, passing few people, and no open businesses. The Fish Market was open (all the guide books state that it's a New Year's tradition to come here and have a bowl of fish stew to help abate any lingering hangovers), but we weren't really hungry enough for anything there at the moment. We meandered around, took some photographs, made some locals' day trying to get an Americano for Em (these are not common and apparently not readily understood when explained), and moved on.
Outside the market is the main throughway, Cardenal Jose Maria Caro, which follows the Mapocho river. Along one of the overpasses we found a dozen or so women selling food from their shopping cart stalls. Always crazy enough for street food, we wandered over and were happy to see it as something yummy. The women were selling a fish and octopus cerviche over noodles, with some roasted corn and onions thrown in for good measure (we later learned that these women were Peruvian and not Chilean). It was pretty damn tasty. There was also a cart where we picked up some sort of desert that tasted like a combination of bread pudding and mochi.
We followed the river for a bit and ended up in Forestal Park, outside the Bella Arts Center (Fine Arts Museum), a museum that was unfortunately closed for the day. The park was peaceful and we relaxed for a bit before continuing onward towards the Santiago Metropolitan Park, which is Santiago's version of Griffith Park if anyone has ever been to LA. Turns out everyone else had the same idea as us. Where previously we'd only seen a few handfuls of people, there were throngs here.
The main reason we wandered over to the park is that Valentina had told us that there was a funicular and a newly opened gondola that would take you to the top of Cerro San Cristobal (within the park) where you could see the statute of Immaculate Conception (a giant statue of Mary) that overlooked the city and get some spectacular 360 views. Since we were on the side of the funicular, we joined the crazy line with the other 100 or so people and spent the next hour inching our way to the entrance (through a small castle facade).
The funicular ride was fun and harrowing as it goes almost vertically up the side of the mountain. It deposits you just shy of the apex. From there you can take photographs, buy trinkets, get a bite to eat, or continue up past the art collection of individually designed crosses, through the small outdoor theater, and to the base of the statue of Immaculate Conception.
After admiring the view for a while, we attempted to find the walking path back down the mountain, with the goal of ending up at the zoo (which was near the bottom, by the start of the funicular). The so helpful information people directed us to the wrong path and we ended up following a main road down a few miles and coming out on the complete other side of the park. While the zoo was a lost opportunity at this point, we did get to pass by some more great viewpoints, a couple of parks, another closed museum, and we were able to follow the path of the gondola we had opted not to take. This side of the park appeared to be in a more affluent part of the city. The streets were wide and tree lined, the homes large, and the inhabitants of a different breed. We walked for a bit, admiring the homes and area, noting once again that all the businesses and restaurants were closed, and eventually arriving at Avenida Providencia, where we caught a bus home.
As Monday rolled around, we expected things to open up again and were excited to see the city awake. This turned out to be a foolish hope; it appears that Santiagoians like to take an extended weekend for the New Year. One thing we knew for sure was going on was the changing of the guards at the Palace de la Moneda (means mint, but is the presidential palace). Every other day the guards put on a show for the tourists that involves marching, horses, and music. It was supposed to start at 10 am as it was a weekday, but I guess they were still thinking it was a weekend cause they began at 11.
We watched the show for a while before leaving to enter the museum below La Moneda (the only museum in the city open on a Monday). The museum was having a special exhibit on Picasso with many of his pieces from the Paris National Art Museum on tour. While Picasso may not be my favorite artist (or even top 100), I can admire his technique and creativity for what it was and the movement it started.
Em has been dying to go to a Chilean winery after hearing so many good things about the wine here and so we had booked a bike vineyard tour for the afternoon. The tour met at an older vineyard, Vina Cousino Macul, at the outskirts of the city and was set to have us bike through the vineyard, take a tour of the processing center, and sample a few varieties. What ended up happening is that we took a series of metros and then walked a few kilometers to be meet by the bike tour guide's apologetic face as he conveyed the the winery was participating in the extended holiday weekend and therefore there would be no tour this day.
Disappointed, but deciding not to waste what was left of the day, we backtracked to the heart of the city to visit the general cemetery. Before the creation of the cemetery, the dead were buried all over the place or if they weren't Catholic, they were just thrown off the side of Santa Lucia Hill. Obviously, this lead to a lot of social, political, and hygienic problems.
The idea of a general cemetery was created to fix these problems and was originally thought up as a "Parthenon;" a place for all the heros of the Chilean Nation to rest and for everyone else to pay homage to them. All of the main leaders of the country (with the except of two), are buried there, as well as many artists, writers, and members of influential families. Many of these families have exorbitant mausoleums.
A wall was built to deleaniate the more affluent from the common and the distinction is very apparent. Whereas there are massive crypts on one side, with tree lines alleyways, the other side is home to what I've taken to calling apartment complexes for the dead. These are two and three storey buildings filled with coffin sized cubby holes. Some of the cubby holes have awnings or trinkets or vases of flowers surrounding them and some are blank and dilapidated.
Tuesday was our last day in Santiago and the one day where we got to see what the city looks like when its four million residents aren't hiding out in their homes. It was also our only day to explore some of the city's extensive collection of museums. We made the most of the day and visited the Chilean National History Museum, the Memorial and Human Rights Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Bella Arts (Fine Arts) Museum/SAM (Contemporary Art Museum) (housed in same building). Santiago proscribes to the same philosophy as London and some other major cities, in that all their national museums are free; making the experience even better.
We also managed to squeeze in a lunch at the Centro Market to try the fish stew that most people enjoy on New Year's Day morning. The stew was palatable, but nothing to write home about. Em's garlic shrimp were pretty tasty though, once they showed up. Originally they had brought her some octopus dish and explained that that's what we had ordered. Regardless of whether they heard calarami (squid) or camerones (shrimps) in Spanish, neither sound anything like pulpa (octopus), so the error was not on our end.
Of all the museums that we visited, the Memorial and Human Rights Museum is probably the most visited and most poignant. This museum is dedicated to explaining the dictatorship lead by Antonio Pinochet that was Chile's government from 1973 until 1990 and the atrocities committed during that period against the Chilean people. The exhibits are a mix between visual, auditory, and interactive, and provoke much contemplation.
Due to it being summertime now in Santiago, it doesn't get dark until 9:30 or 10 and so with some extra time after the closing of the museums and dusk, Em and I decided to climb to the top of Santa Lucia Hill. The crest of Santa Lucia Hill was where Pedro de Valdivia declared the city conquered in 1541. Currently the hill is a nice city park with a series of haphazard staircases that eventually lead to Fort Hidalgo, the remaining one of the two forts built in 1820 as defensive points for the city. The fort looks like a mini castle, and from the top turret, one is able to get some great views of the city. The fort itself did not appear to be open to the public.
While on the walking tour a few days previous, Valentina had told us about the native dish, Pastel de Choclo (sweet corn pie). This dish is traditionally made with pino - a mixture of ground beef and onions sauted together - mixed with olives, raisins, and egg, and then covered with a mashed sweet corn topping and all baked together in a ceramic pot. It's supposed to be the South American version of Shepherd's Pie and a must try dish.
Viva la Vida is the only restaurant that make a vegetarian version of Pastel de Choclo, where they substituted soy meat for the pino. We'd come back to the Bellavista area three different nights in an effort to find them open so that we could try this dish (they'd been enjoying the holiday too much to open their doors). Turns out that in the vegetarian version, it's not just the pino they take out, but all the rest of the extras as well; the dish we got was an entire pot of corn mush with some questionable soy product in it. After three days of wandering back to the Bellavista area to try this, I was severely disappointed.
At the restaurant we also decided to try Terremoto (Spanish for Earthquake). This is a concoction where crappy wine and grenadine syrup are mixed together and then a scoop or two of pineapple ice cream is added to the mixture and allowed to slowly melt into it. The end result is instantly rotten teeth and diabetes. It was even too much for my constant sugar cravings.
Are last day in Santiago was a success in terms of cultural experiences, but a fail in terms of food.
posted by Robby @ 6:18 AM
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