A River Runs Through It

It was a gorgeous morning.  Sunny but cool, around 14.  By mid afternoon 27.  Evening a light breeze, down to 21.  Absolutely perfect weather.

Jacqueline Kiplimo, female winner of the half marathon

Feral dog, thought people running was the best thing ever.  The runners had to shoo him away.  He kept ahead of the pack.  42 km was apparently nothing...

We took a coffee a block away on the patio at a Starbucks.  Then SS suggested a walking route which, I should have guessed, was more a trek than a walk.  We headed towards the Mapocho river which cuts through the centre of town and has lovely pedestrian and bike paths.  First thing we stumbled upon a marathon, or half marathon, a measly 42 km.  Then we discovered a sculpture garden.  While the city holds (for us) very little architectural interest, public art is everywhere, at metro stops, park benches, throughout the town.  We made a few wrong turns but eventually got to Bellavista.

Public art is everywhere

Bellavista is to Santiago what Palermo was to Buenos Aires; an older neighbourhood, in the midst of gentrification, renovation, and rebirth.  It still has an old and decaying feeling even while all sorts of shops and restaurants pop up.  At one end is a plaza with a tourist funicular, quite large, which goes up Cerro San Cristobel, a mountain which is also Santiago’s largest green space.  The air quality here is notoriously bad, it has an LA type of geography, but we lucked out with quite clear skies and fantastic views.  Of, well, a lot of buildings and urban sprawl. 

One side of Santiago...

And more of Santiago

Only a couple of hundred stairs from the top of the funicular

No corner of the country is free from feral dogs

Two types of messages

Looking down the funicular track

The funicular ride was a little more reassuring than the rickety old boxes in Valparaiso.  They had four levels, a staff person was on board, and there were two.  You separated midstream on a sidetrack.  It took about 12 minutes to get to the top, though you still had to take 226 steps to get to the Virgin of Immaculate Conception, which towers over the park.  (Yes, I pulled a Pop and counted.)  There is an older chapel on site, and a large open air church where, so they say, Pope JP once gave mass.  It was a mass of families and cyclists, not churchgoers, on our visit.  But there was plenty of tourist and religious tat to go around, for those with the interest.

After the funicular ride we strolled Bellavista and took a Peruvian lunch on a patio at a Cebicheria (a ceviche cafe).  SS had the real thing, but they also do a vegetarian version.  Then we shared Tequenos, like an empanada but fried, and finally a "taller in saltado," a stab in the dark, but turned out to be a Peruvian version of chow mein.

 Pics around Bellavista

This and below: 100 year old mansion being renovated into boutique hotel

Cat with what Gordon Ramsey calls squab

Guess what?  There was more walking after lunch.  We must have been over 10km by now but we persevered into the centre, the business centre, which unlike most cities, was nowhere near the financial centre (that’s back where our hotel is).  It was shut up tight like a lock.  Interesting to see Sunday still being observed as a day of rest.  We stopped in at the modern art museum which was showing etchings by various Chilean artists.  Had a mixed reaction to that.  After a mosey about we started back on the river route.  It was stinking hot by now and we needed a few shade breaks and ended up having water at a cafe before hitting the hotel close to 5:30.

Pictures inspired by titles of Pablo Neruda poems

Children's school notebooks in a spiral.  Hmmm.

Siesta.

Dinner locally.  SS had a nice egg and spinach starter then risotto.  For not the first time I ordered a vegetable salad and got walnut and blue cheese, then a simple fried fish and potatoes.  Good.  Lollapalooza is in Santiago this week and the hotel was hopping.

One of my favorite concerts was the Black Eyed Peace at the Supper Bowl.

Someone had a significant birthday April 8.  SS turned [factual error].  “He turned how old?” I asked.  He turned “[expletive deleted] years old” was the response.  So this is in fact the most boring blog entry ever because the trip was a celebration but the day wasn’t.  We had a lazy morning, a nice walk through a neighbourhood called Provendicia, took lunch on the terrace at the hotel and spent the afternoon by the pool on the roof.  It was supposed to hit 29 but I think only got to 27.  Regardless, very hot.  I hid under the shade of a cabana.   

The W has a beautiful lap pool with spectacular views.  There is also a restaurant and for some time it was the hottest destination in the city; for whatever reason it was closed a while ago and therefore has become a magical refuge of quiet and serenity. 

There might have been six or seven of us up there tops—and the hotel is full!  For dinner we went to Astrid y Gaston, a Peruvian inspired restaurant, and the number one restaurant on TripAdvisor.  Food and service were great but it took forever to get dinner.  About 40 odd minutes for our starters and from the time we sat down to the time we got our mains was 102 minutes.  And it was the same for everyone.  At one point I overheard an American man loudly complaining “I’m not going to sit here all night...” It was not the most memorable of significant birthday dinners.

Scallops.  Sent FedEx to the restaurant upon order.