Sightseeing Santiago de Chile

I must say I do like the pillows here… they’re long.

I slept until 10am this morning! But I did lie awake from 1.30am til 6am.

Then I went for Breakfast and ran into Andre (an Italian), who I had met briefly at my hotel last night, so we did the sightseeing together.

We visited the central market (fresh fish and chicken and cafes of the same ingredients). Some haberdashery markets (oops), downtown, the Plaza de Armas, the Cathedral, Santa Lucia hill, the forest park (it’s a strip of park, mowed grass and trees; not like a forest), and the cultural centre of Bellavista. I wonder what could possibly be left for tomorrow? I think 2 nights would have been enough in Santiago.

They really do smoke a lot here, everywhere. So tonight after passive smoking on a slow internet connection for one hour, I opted to find a café restaurant with a ‘no smoking’ section. I found a cheap pizza place, the menu looked as bad as the food tasted, but at least I could breathe.

A local, Edgardo, requested to join me, there seemed no harm in that, so I got to practice my Spanish for an hour in conversation, and he insisted on paying for my dinner. So win-win for me! I did try to pay, I had requested my bill but he told the waiter to take it back and add it to his bill. He was rather insistent on me trying the Pisco Sour, but I’ll wait on that until I’m ready.

Did you know that Chile and Peru both claim Pisco Sour as their own national drink? 

Santiago - the view from Santa Lucia Hill