Here we are in Santiago, Chile! And the Santiago we find now is very different from the Santiago we visited in April 2012. The “old” Santiago was crowded, uninteresting, and devoid of restaurants and interesting sites. This “new” Santiago has parks; neat restaurants; and great crowds of people walking, talking, biking–it is exciting and lovely. The Chilean police have not changed though. On the last trip the police and military used incredible force (much more than needed by an exponential amount) to put down a peaceful student march against the scheduled power plants in Patagonia. The police we saw today are on motorcycles, in camouflage and ride their bikes across sidewalks, pedestrian lanes, and park grasslands for pure intimidation. It was incredible. Two police officers stopped a truck with baskets of apples in the truck bed. I guess a couple of baskets of apples are considered contraband in Chile. (Later our photo tour host, Rex Bryngelson who lives in the southern part of the country, tells us he does not think it’s as bad as we describe so we’ll reconsider our evaluation.)
In spite of the intimidating police, the park just across the street is lovely. It borders the river and has many interesting sculptures. Howard commented on all the lovers “eating each other’s faces.” I said it’s like Paris: Give lovers a place to conveniently “eat each other’s faces” and they will take advantage of that opportunity. But that park is clearly used by all the people of Santiago. There were lots of families enjoying the park and beautiful weather. It’s spring here in Chile.
We also have a wonderful view of the Andes mountains from the park. It’s incredible to see the downtown high-rises framed by the snow-topped Andes. And I do mean snow-TOPPED; the snow only dusts the top of the mountains. It seems that there should be more snow at this time of the year. I’ll ask Rex later.
Our trip: We enjoyed a photography trip with Rex Bryngelson of Patagonia Photo a year and a half ago to Patagonia. We signed up early for this trip to visit the Atacama Desert and Easter Island as soon as it was available. Amazingly no one else signed up so we have a private tour with Rex.
As much as I have looked forward to this trip, I did NOT race to begin our journey; I hobbled! I really messed up my knee (don’t know how) about a week or so before the trip. My doc has done her best to get me moving: two steroid shots; prednisone pills; strong painkillers and a knee brace. If worse comes to worse I can stay at the hotel while Howard and Rex visit the photography sites. But I hope it does not come to that! Since it’s a private tour I think we can fashion the trip to minimize hiking. My knee is certainly much better with all the attention Dr. Aspiras has given it but we’ll see how it goes.
The plane trip here is painful in more ways than one. Thirteen hours of flight-time seemed like twice that long. I got about 2 hours sleep at the most. My knee troubled me somewhat but I continue to take the miracle pills. But our pain is well worth it: We have a lovely apartment in Santiago (Hotel Orly) with the most comfy bed. I sleep 4 hours upon our arrival and wake up feeling like a million pesos.
It’s Saturday here. We assumed that the restaurants would be catering to the typical South American late night diners (8pm or later) so we were happily surprised to see that lunch-time dining was fully alive at 1:30pm. Rex, who will meet us here tomorrow morning, suggested we go to Liguria Restaurant
. It is just steps from our apartment. The joint was jumpin’! We are amazed that the restaurant, which looks like a tiny place from the outside, is much larger on the inside. Almost all tables were full. We have two servers to help us–we need an extra server to translate the menu. But before we start using brain-power in an attempt to figure out the Spanish menu, we need Pico Sours! And I must say that they are one of the best (if not THE best) Pisco Sours we’ve had; and our sample size is large.
Our Spanish-to -English waiter is great. He helps us through every line of the menu. Probably 90% of the menu is indecipherable to us. We take his recommendations to heart. We start with sauteed mushrooms, bread and pebre. Pebre, a local dish served at every restaurant to begin the meal, is salsa! And slathered on bread it is heaven. For his main dish Howard has braised pork ribs with stewed vegetables (including corn). I have a delicious white fish fillet with a perfectly cooked melange of vegetables (zucchini, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, chilies, and jicama). We have a 2011 Tabali Cabernet Sauvignon (Maipo valley Chile) that is perfect. We will be hard-pressed to visit another restaurant when we come back here the day before we return home.
The restaurant is perfect for people-watching. I’d say that 75% of the tables were families. Chilean children are beautiful and incredibly well-behaved. Many exhibit affection toward their parents and each other. It is a heart-warming sight. The servers are at a near run around the restaurant. One waiter wears a jaunty beret and has a large handle bar mustache artfully waxed into giant curls on each side. The bartender is an entertainer as he shakes the Pisco Sours in his cocktail shaker.
After lunch we take a long walk around the neighborhood, including the park. About6pm we end back at the Liguria bar. (How did we get back here? Must be an alien abduction!) Of course we need another Pisco Sour fix. The restaurant is dead but we imagine that there would be another dinner rush at about 8pm.
We sleep well dreaming of the trip to come.