Santiago de Chile

NOTE: This is a long post with photos. You might want to open this email in the app.

Our trip to Chile was my first exposure to South America. Santiago is a friendly city, and spending more than two days in one place was lovely. I explored the area while my husband went skiing in the mountains for several days.

The City of Santiago

We stayed in Providencia, a nice neighborhood close to a shopping mall with upscale apartment buildings. I decided to use my feet as much as possible and did not use this city's bus or metro system, even though we were between two metro stops, Los Leones and Tabalaba. (Don’t you like saying the word “Tabalaba?”)

The decision only to walk by day four was a mistake. Although you cannot see the pollution in the photo below, it is significant. By the time I had walked for three days, my throat was raw, and I needed to stay in the hotel on the fourth.

The neighborhood surrounding our hotel was calm and quiet, and it was still leafy green in the winter. The average temperature was 65 degrees, and I wore a jacket or a sweater, although half the time, I needed neither. I thought that being away from most of the city noise and traffic in these green areas would be best given the pollution.

There are flower vendors on the busy corners of the city, something I’m used to in Türkiye. That was not the only similarity. The construction of the newer parts of the city reminded us both of Ankara, Türkiye.

The mail is delivered in this neighborhood by bicycle, and I saw he felt no need to lock it to the fence.

The People in Santiago

Here’s a quick video of an average day in Santiago. To the folks who consistently insist that Americans should not wear running shoes or sneakers, look at the feet. I'm used to being a very obvious tourist in every city. I’m blonde, and I wear bright colors. This trip, I toned it down with black and gray, but I’m not giving up my Hoka shoes when I have plantar fasciitis.

I test the people in each city where I travel with a smile. Santiago passed the test with flying colors. Given its past, I did not expect to be met by such pleasant people. Even with my obvious fumbling of the language, I could communicate, although I still had a lot of questions. I will not return to any Spanish-speaking country until I know more Spanish.

The everyday necessities in Santiago are in the passages, similar to Türikye. Here, you will find your hairdresser, barber, dentist, shoe repair shop, tailor, electrical store, etc.

The city’s electric system is similar to that of India and other countries, with too many wires and nothing underground. I feel very sorry for any electrical lineman who has to work with this mess.

The hospital was down the block from the hotel. Given my heart surgery in April, it’s now one of the first things I look for in a city, just in case. I hate being this way, and maybe I’ll not worry about it in a year or so.

The mountains are very close to the city. Many of the visitors to our hotel came for the skiing. After a knee injury on a slope in Türkiye, skiing isn’t something I’m interested in, but my husband drove up on two separate days and enjoyed the skiing, although much of it was not powder but covered in ice.

The traffic was bumper to bumper, and an hour-plus trip on the second day took three hours. Because of the narrow width of the roads, the traffic for all skiers goes up in the morning and is the opposite way down in the late afternoon. Going for a half-day afternoon ski isn’t possible as all the traffic is heading toward you.

As you can see from the photos below, there are no trees on the mountains, and each slope is a vast expanse, perfect for someone like me who falls a lot. Many families visiting the slopes did not ski but took the kids to play in the snow for a day.

Food and Wine

We ate one meal daily besides the basic hotel breakfast. Our best experience was at a steakhouse named Happening. The waiter introduced us to his Chilean favorites, and we enjoyed delicious beef ribs and Carménère wine.

This grape was initially grown in Bordeaux, France, but is now in Chile due to a disease wiping it out in France in the 1800s. Initially, the Chileans thought the grapes were a type of merlot until the actual vintage was discovered.

With an extra day on Saturday to look around, we drove to the city center. I had two markets marked to explore and several other places. The entire downtown (several miles long) was covered with vendors exhibiting their wares on a blanket on the ground. The markets were packed, and we decided to head out of town to Valparaíso and visit a winery (see other posts).

Santiago was a place on my husband’s bucket list to ski. I’m glad I could see the city, but it’s not on my list to return.

Have you been? What should I have seen?