Better Late Than Never
Lauren, Melissa, and I were fortunate enough to spend a couple of nights in Santiago before our adventure in Concepcion began. Here is an account of what we got ourselves into...
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| How we felt when we landed. |
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| The Andes make everything better! |
Despite an awful
flight experience, our first day in Santiago was pretty good. We may have
missed out a little because we actually spent about 5 hours sleeping in the
room, but definitely had some experience in the city! When we first arrived, we
had to kill a couple of hours while the staff got a room ready for us a little
early. We went on a short walk on "Av. Portugal," the street our
hotel is on. The first stop was a Chilean grocery store, where the most
fascinating thing was definitely the entire aisle designated to mayonnaise.
They have a million brands and container options- jars, pouches, or tubes;
whatever your heart(attack) desires. We took a picture and got in a little
trouble, so we went on our way. Next, we walked up and down and tried to take
it all in before we had lunch at this little hole in the wall. A Heineken was
the only thing on the menu that I recognized so I ordered one of those, and I
gambled on one of the sandwich options. Unfortunately, the house won. The bread
was good, but the meat (pork I think) was a hot, salty mess. According to the
menu it was a "Lomito," but according to our research, it was NOT. On
the way back to the hotel I bought a chilean twinkie. I still havent had the
nerve to taste it, but it looks cool. After our short adventure we took a well
deserved siesta. Following our nap, we set out on a dinner-time quest for some
authentic Chilean seafood. We found exactly what we were looking for. Our
dinner experience was positively incredible. Everything from our taxi driver,
Ricardo, who is sweet as pie to the sinks in the bathroom was magnificent.
After a failed lunch, we devoured the following: baked artichokes stuffed with
a seabass mouse, mussel soup, Chilean seabass with roasted vegetables, and a
salmon/hazelnut dish. We definitely needed dessert, right?
The next day, Friday the 22nd, was a whirlwind. We spent some time
studying Lauren's book on visiting Chile and a trip advisor app on
Thursday night, so we were certainly on a mission to see as much as we could
given our trip was so short. We decided that it was imperative that we visit
San Cristobal Hill via a thrilling ride on the Funicular. Once we reached the
top of the line on the Funicular, there was an option to climb farther to the
hill's peak and enter a magnificent statue of The Virgin Mary. Choosing to do
so proved to be breathtaking (literally and figuratively)! The best way to
describe this adventure is undoubtably to share pictures, so please
enjoy!
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| Above is a picture of the Funicular. Talk about the view from the top! |
Climbing the stairs to the top of San Cristobal created an appetite for
all three of us, so we headed to Patio Bellavista where we were overwhelmed
with dining and shopping options. We settled on a joint called Barandiaran
largely because the entire menu was offered in English and we did not want a
repeat of the previous day's mistake. Again, we had some excellent food and
drinks. It has become obvious to me that dining in Santiago is a true
experience. The hustle and bustle that I am familiar with is not present, and
it translates to a much longer and far more enjoyable dining experience.
Although the food is delicious it appears, from my perspective, that the dining
experience isn't actually about the food at all.
With full bellies, we headed off for some further browsing; however, we
ended up being exactly what some locals were in the market for!! By chance,
there were several students searching for individuals that speak English as a
native language. They were fulfilling a requirement to eventually become
translators one day, and they requested interviews. Lauren and Melissa both
made their Chilean video debut, and the students could not have been any
sweeter. They asked several questions about our time spent in Santiago, and it
was very obvious that they were very pleased to hear such great feedback about the
place they call home! There were hugs and kisses for all following the
interviews.
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| Lauren's interview |
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| Our menu from lunch in Patio Bella Vista |
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| NOT a Lomito |
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| A Lomito |
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