Chile is a curiously shaped country. It’s essentially a long, thin back-to-front-comma-shaped land, stretching along the south west coast of South America nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes. Very long and very thin – while Chile’s coast extends nearly 4000 km, the country is only 180km wide on average! Santiago, the capital city, is located almost in the exact centre of the country. From here we plan to move north over the next month or so towards the border with Peru. Giving us about 2000 km of coach travel to look forward to – yay! Something to be taken in stages, no? With a few stops en route.
Anyway, our first stop on the South American continent was Santiago. After all, Easter Island although politically under the umbrella of Chile and South America, was 3878 km off the coast… and understandably had a very different feel to it. Santiago was in some places alarmingly familiar. We stayed in a district just south of the historic town centre where the streets looked alarmingly similar to some of those in Cambridge! The avenues were actually named ‘Paris’ and ‘Londres’ (London) in recognition of their similarity to places in Europe. Which to us was a bit weird. Drifting away from this region, the rest of Santiago wasn’t so spookily familiar to us, but its European colonial origins are very evident. Wandering through the pleasant squares of the historic centre past churches and tiered fountains you could easily convince yourself that you were in Spain!
But of course there are some pronounced differences too, making it fun to explore. As Santiago is right on the foothills of the Andes, several fingers of mountain jut in to the city. The best known of these is Cerro San Cristobal, which rises steeply from the Bella Vista region of town. It’s a popular spot for locals as it’s covered in parks and crowned by a giant statue of the Virgin Mary – and so even has a friendly funicular to take you up the step climb from downtown. Or at least we have to assume that the funicular is usually helpful… when we visited the place they had just stopped selling tickets for it – even though it was the middle of a Sunday afternoon, well within the opening hours. Our Spanish wasn’t good enough to interpret the ticket girl’s explanation, so we assumed the thing was broken and decided to walk up (along with several groups of disgruntled locals who were also turned away). And so we trudged up the steep, hot, slopes in the blistering sun, occasionally resting for 5 minutes on a rare bench in the shade of a tree. And passing a lot of Chileans as we went up!
It was really nice at the top though – worth the trek (although irritatingly we passed the top of the funicular later and it WAS working… grr). There were stunning panoramic views over the city far below, with other jutting parts of the Andes in the background. And the parks on top of Cerro San Cristobal were lovely – shady, pretty – nice places to relax with a cold drink after a long climb! We wandered right along the top of the mountain spur and descended back to a different part of town (where we gave up with walking and jumped on the tube).
Spending Christmas in Santiago was a bit spooky. Of course Chile, along with the bulk of South America, is Catholic, and so Christmas (Navidad) is a big thing here. And as it’s a family-orientated festival, everyone stays at home. Santiago was a ghost town! It was really weird – the usually bustling streets of the town centre were deserted, dead, quiet. All shops closed, 99% of people staying at home. Fortunately for us a couple of restaurants stayed open for lunch, so we did manage to get something to eat! And the silent streets were fun to wander around too.
Anyway, onwards to the North, to spend New Year in La Serena. Hope you all have a lovely Christmas holiday!
Anyway, our first stop on the South American continent was Santiago. After all, Easter Island although politically under the umbrella of Chile and South America, was 3878 km off the coast… and understandably had a very different feel to it. Santiago was in some places alarmingly familiar. We stayed in a district just south of the historic town centre where the streets looked alarmingly similar to some of those in Cambridge! The avenues were actually named ‘Paris’ and ‘Londres’ (London) in recognition of their similarity to places in Europe. Which to us was a bit weird. Drifting away from this region, the rest of Santiago wasn’t so spookily familiar to us, but its European colonial origins are very evident. Wandering through the pleasant squares of the historic centre past churches and tiered fountains you could easily convince yourself that you were in Spain!
But of course there are some pronounced differences too, making it fun to explore. As Santiago is right on the foothills of the Andes, several fingers of mountain jut in to the city. The best known of these is Cerro San Cristobal, which rises steeply from the Bella Vista region of town. It’s a popular spot for locals as it’s covered in parks and crowned by a giant statue of the Virgin Mary – and so even has a friendly funicular to take you up the step climb from downtown. Or at least we have to assume that the funicular is usually helpful… when we visited the place they had just stopped selling tickets for it – even though it was the middle of a Sunday afternoon, well within the opening hours. Our Spanish wasn’t good enough to interpret the ticket girl’s explanation, so we assumed the thing was broken and decided to walk up (along with several groups of disgruntled locals who were also turned away). And so we trudged up the steep, hot, slopes in the blistering sun, occasionally resting for 5 minutes on a rare bench in the shade of a tree. And passing a lot of Chileans as we went up!
It was really nice at the top though – worth the trek (although irritatingly we passed the top of the funicular later and it WAS working… grr). There were stunning panoramic views over the city far below, with other jutting parts of the Andes in the background. And the parks on top of Cerro San Cristobal were lovely – shady, pretty – nice places to relax with a cold drink after a long climb! We wandered right along the top of the mountain spur and descended back to a different part of town (where we gave up with walking and jumped on the tube).
Spending Christmas in Santiago was a bit spooky. Of course Chile, along with the bulk of South America, is Catholic, and so Christmas (Navidad) is a big thing here. And as it’s a family-orientated festival, everyone stays at home. Santiago was a ghost town! It was really weird – the usually bustling streets of the town centre were deserted, dead, quiet. All shops closed, 99% of people staying at home. Fortunately for us a couple of restaurants stayed open for lunch, so we did manage to get something to eat! And the silent streets were fun to wander around too.
Anyway, onwards to the North, to spend New Year in La Serena. Hope you all have a lovely Christmas holiday!
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