The initial reason for being here is for the land trip across Argentina and the Andes. Given the distances involved we've got a cheap flight by GOL (a Brazilian airline) back to BA on Tues morning, so Sunday and Monday is it (we've our Juanes concert to go to on Tues night in BA).
Sunday:
Sunday morning is fairly quiet, so after breakfast at the hotel we decided to wander around the city area again. Our hotel is nice and close to the city, a Metro station and good value. Recommended http://www.hotelparis813.com/en/
Off we go.
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| Smallish room. Anton needed to stretch out the front before we got going. |
First off is a Metro trip for a few stations. Easy as - and as per last visit, the Metro is -well - FANTASTIC !
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| An everyday run-of-the-mill Santiago metro art gallery station. |
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| The river |
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| Some riverside exercise equipment for a break from walking. |
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| A different sort of walking....sideways |
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| Anton translated the instructions so that we knew how to use the stuff. |
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| Anton's attempt at sculpture impersonation |
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| It's definitely sculpture. Says so in Spanish (according to Anton). |
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| Some local dancing near the sculpture |
As we were walking we noticed a very tall building in the distance, so that was our next stop. Ends up being (when complete), the tallest building in South America, all mixed in with a shopping mall.
The shopping mall was actually very big. We found another large one in Santiago last time we visited. They seem to have a lot more class than the ones back in Australia. Anton seems to like finding them. (He was searching for them in BA as well). I think he's becoming a closet shopper. He's scheming to come back here tomorrow.
After all this, back to the city centre for a bit of a wander around. Like last time, a few more people around latish Sunday. A few unique traffic lights in the mall area, although not sure if they take account of slow mobility issues.
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| The Bank of Chile is well guarded for a Sunday |
We ended up the Bohemian (for want of a better term) part of Santiago in a cafe for a chicken caesar salad. An English translation of the menu also meant it must be a tourist haunt as well, although not tonight. Meal was fine, then back to the hotel, some cards, Chilean TV and sleep. Monday has a task planned.
Monday:
Time to fess up. The other reason for coming to Santiago is I've had this long running urge to motorcycle around South America for a while. From scrolling the web, I'm not on my own, and Chile seems to be the place to start. I'm neither a doctor, a revolutionary, nor want to ride an old Norton on a few thousand kilometres of dirt, so I don't want to re-live Che's ride. It just seems like a pretty fun thing to do sometime. (There's a stack of web sites from people who've done/doing this sort of stuff. For starters I'd recommend looking at this one. Read the pages last to first. http://www.rattlesnakeobservatory.com/wordpress/), There's also a number of tour groups doing it for those preferring it that way.
Bottom line is, we went looking for a place whose address we had in a Santiago suburb who rents motorcycles. (No map, but looked straight forward on the web map.)
Metro to a station. There's an election coming up soon. Looks just like home.
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| Did we look like tourists? No way - I was even given an election brochure ! |
Walked forever. Showed someone waiting for a bus the street name. No go.
Back a kilometre or so and not a clue. A policewoman was talking to a few workers so we showed them the address. After a bit of discussion, no-one had any idea, so the policewoman rang up the police station for help. Found out where it was, got the map on her phone and pointed out how to get there. Not bad service eh?
Off we go again. It's not far........We've gone too far. There's a sheet metal shop. We ask them. Nope, but out with an old Santiago street directory. It's 200m away. Very close. Off we go.
Found, but it's house behind a big wall, no bell, no sign, no revving motorcycles, nobody .... nothing resembling anything to do with motorcycles. I asked Anton to climb up and look over the wall to see if he could see any motorcycles. He refused. Call out something about motorcycles in Spanish? He refused. Maybe yell out "Che Guevera, Norton Si? " Same again - refusal.
After 2 hours we gave up and headed back to the city. After walking 100m further on there was someone taking their dog for a walk beside their motorcycle. Maybe he was the place's owner, but we'd had it by then. Forget it for now. I'll be more organised next time. I've got an excuse to come back.
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| Leash is attached between dog and motorcycle. Obviously a steady hand and no urge to gun it. Note the unfriendly front fences. |
Time for a munch? Choice of - well - lots of fast food stuff (no Chinese food), so we settled on a Mexican tortilla dish. OK - typical fast food. We don't usually have desertish stuff, however Anton spotted someone with an ice-cream which - must admit - looked OK. Eventually we found the it came from. Anton was content.
Anton's fettish for shopping centres meant we wandered around the centre for a while. Quite impressive. Unlike home, there were actually people in the shops buying things.
We decided we'd better sus. out the local supermarket and compare to Woolworth's at home. Very big and has everything you'd want. Anton bought some souvenier socks and an electric toothbrush. He then went looking for the curry shelf. Mmm... A problem. If we moved here, we'd have to bring a year's supply of curry sauces and coconut cream. There was 1/uno/one/un type in this huge supermarket. Unacceptable. Obviously curry hasn't taken on in Chile. (We found 2 curry restaurants in the whole of Santiago - population 8 million - in the books when we went looking.)
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| Santiago's "Woolworths/Coles" (Aus-speak) |
After that, we wandered back to the hotel to pack and sleep for a 5:00am wake up, lift to the airport, and an 8:00am flight back to BA.
Buenos noches.
