SOUTH AMERICA

CHILE

Santiago the First
I feel excited but a bit nervous as we touch down in South America for the first time. We have no experience of this continent, no language (neither Spanish nor Portuguese) and no sleep. Interestingly we arrive in Chile’s capital 6 hours before we left New Zealand, which causes havoc with our sleeping patterns for a couple of days. Luckily check out time here is a civilised midday, so it doesn’t matter too much that the kids have been going to sleep between 3 and 4am. After the first two days in the posh ‘Crowne Plaza’, to give us a gentle introduction to a new continent, (good English spoken, comfortable rooms, reasonable massages and even ice machines), we head back to reality, and budget, at the 3-star Vittoria Hotel.

The manager here is a friendly German (actually Spanish but lived for a long time in the land of Hamburgers and Frankfurters, hence not a contradiction in terms). He gives us a great deal on a quadruple room (actually two connected doubles) for US$90 instead of US$130. He also explains some of the differences between Spanish Spanish and Chilean Spanish, but as we have no clue of either it’s way over our heads. Breakfast is shocking, but you can’t have everything…

We head out to explore on a Sunday and it’s like a ghost town. We eventually find a café open on the main square (Plaza de Armas) – a name that turns out to be a popular one for main squares in SA. The waiter very kindly helps us with our first two words of Spanish that turn out to be ‘huevos’ and ‘pochados’ (‘eggs’ and ‘poached’). I decide to add Spanish to Ruby’s homework schedule so that I can learn something at the same time. Another unknown is the currency. We eventually realise that the prices with .000 at the end are thousands of pesos rather than dollars, so everything is over twice the price we thought!
We admire the statue of the founder of Santiago, Pedro de Valdivia - in particular the unfeasibly large ‘cahunas’ of his stallion – as well as the grand cathedral and acrobatic drumming displays performed by children as well as adults. Our guidebook’s highlight, the museum of Pre-Columbian Art is a bit disappointing as half is closed off and the remainder has no real focus, just a mish-mash from all over SA. There are a few highlights such as tiny mummified babies, large wooden sculptures in human form that used to accompany the funeral processions and Coca related items, including a metal prong that makes you vomit to prepare you for the hallucinogenic experience to follow. I consider ‘half-inching’ one to avoid a hangover on my next night out!
It really could have come in handy as the following night I order a plate of cold meats and cheeses, not realising it’s meant to be shared by 2-3 people. Even the delicious Carmenère can’t wash it all down and ‘prongless’, I’m forced to take out a doggy bag and snack on the remains for the next few days.
We decide to take the funicular up St Christobel Hill. We also get a cable car to the Chilean style playground that has real steamrollers rather than plastic cars and stilt like totem poles rather than climbing frames. On the way back we enjoy splendid views of the Andes @ sunset as well as the less splendid smog that stifles the city below like an unwelcome blanket in a tropical motel. Maybe this is the cause of the general grumpiness here in Santiago, or maybe it’s a result of years of oppression under Pinochet. Whichever it is, we decide to find out if other parts of Chile suffer from the same malaise. We hire a car and head North West towards the twin tourist towns of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar.