Santiago is massive and quite nice really (except for the constant threat of robbery which never materialised). With its wide streets and huge apartment blocks, its much more like a European city than anything I'd seen since Panama. And with the proliferation of Starbucks and Burger Kings (which I only visited once and regretted instantly. How can you not have ANY sauce?), very "westernised".
One thing I learned about Chileans is they LOVE a protest, even more so than the Bolivians and Peruvians (who have both been experiencing a lot of protests over the last few months).
 |
| Down with that sort of thing |
And without wanting to take sides, they have reason to. My first visit was to the Museum of Human Rights, which documented the rise and subsequent fall of General Pinochet, and the effect on Chilean society. A great laugh it wasn't, but despite the lack of translations for English-speaking folk, got its point across.
 |
I also visited a couple of other museums ... a railway museum which even let you inspect the undercarriage of some of the locomotives (yay! And it was only £1 to get in) ...
 |
... and a natural history museum that packed in quite a lot considering that Chile runs over 4,000km from north to south (and was free).
 |
| Not real penguins |
I haven't really commented much about my various accommodations because they've not really been noteworthy - they usually range from absolute shit-hole to surprisingly nice for the price. BUT.
My initial hotel (Hotel Vegas - which was a strange name for a hotel designed to look like an English country house) was delightful and roomy, but also quite pricy - and since there was no sign of my bank card ever appearing - I decided to spend the rest of my time in Santiago somewhere a bit cheaper.
And here it is. What I thought was a guest-house turned out to be a single room in an apartment owned by an elderly Chilean gentleman and his 140 year old mother. None of this would be noteworthy, except for the fact that their flat was somewhat "busy" ...
 |
| There's a lot going on here ... |
The above picture is the "living room". Even if there was any room to move about, all the settees were roped off, so there was no living to be done. There was at least a dozen clocks, only one of which thankfully chimed every 15 minutes. Oh, and there was also an incredibly yappy but actually quite cute dog as well ...
The dining room was equally crowded. Not sure if all this paraphernalia got wheeled in again after Christmas - I'm guessing so since the entire flat was rammed and there'd be nowhere to put it.
 |
| The view from my bedroom |
Let me just describe my journey to the bathroom. I needed to unlock my door, step round the first settee, trip over the Xmas tree, close Norman Bates' door, open the other door, go down a corridor, and then I'm in business. All while trying to shush the incredibly noisy but tiny yappy dog.
Not even the bathroom escaped the weirdness. What it lacked in hundreds of creepy antiques, it made up for with a really creepy electronic bin that opened up whenever you approached it, solely to display the toilet paper leavings of its previous occupants. No idea why because the Santiago sewerage system can handle bog roll. Also, there was no toilet paper offered at any point during my stay, and the bidet didn't even work. Still, at least we were safe with not one, not two, but THREE front doors.
Still, they were very nice to me!
Comments