Chile and Santiago

We arrived at the Aubrey Boutique Hotel, a bit like a little piece of England in Chile, thanks to its owners who have been lovingly restoring a former mansion, which certainly looks a bit like the big Edwardian villas in Didsbury or Edgbaston and turning it into a small luxury hotel. Our loft room is beautifully designed and has a fine view over the park at the bottom of San Cristobel hill. My favourite bit is the pool with its wooden decking and Jacuzzi bubbles at one end. The district of Bella Vista is a great place to be based with its streets of colourful old houses, now mainly turned into bars and restaurants, so there is no shortage of places to go in the evening for a little sustenance.
The mountains crowd round the town and when the heat starts to dissipate at the end of the day you suddenly see a snowy peak looming above you in the not too far distance. We walked around the Centro district marvelling at the old colonial architecture and fine churches of different denominations. It was a bit more edgy than Buenos Aires and we got fleeced by some charming people, essentially begging but keen to fund their university education – mainly my kind heart and inability to deal with the sudden currency change meant I gave them much more than I intended! Once again though a very walkable city and the climate is like a lovely Mediterranean summer with hot sunny days (not too hot if you’ve lived in Abu Dhabi) and cooler mornings and evenings.
We took the funicular railway up San Cristobel hill to admire the view of the city and the statue of the Virgin Mary, rather smaller than Christ the Redeemer but a very pleasant spot though John was not at all happy about the steep ride on the ancient funicular which went straight up several hundred feet! The city is a real mix of gleaming new high rise, historic buildings and miles of residential areas stretching away to the coastal mountains. A very brown river, full of iron ore runs along one edge bringing water down from the high mountains. We took the open top bus tour on Saturday, getting on and off at different spots and wandered around the shiny new areas on the mountain side of town, next to the golf course, which looked very like Los Angeles, complete with designer shops and expensive cars. There is a charming little hill, close to the old centre which has been turned into a little park with (vertical) gardens and statues which also gives some great vistas.
We tried the local cocktail of choice the ‘Pisco sour’ and actually rather liked it – lemon juice and some local clear brandy so a bit like a margarita but without the salt or the cointreau, though there is some debate as to whether this is a Chilean or Peruvian invention! The local Sauvignon Blanc is excellent and goes well with the wide variety of sea food on offer. We’ve eaten well though the portions tend to be a bit on the large side. The seafood ‘ceviche’, raw, marinated fish or shellfish with coriander, lemon juice, avocado and sometimes onion or mushroom is very nice. So far we’ve managed to avoid the deep fried corn bread filled with sausage or pork for fear of being unable to walk away! The fruit, as you would expect, is out of this world though everyone is surprised that we get a lot of Chilean fruit in the UK.
The people are really friendly and delighted that we are visiting their country. Even the police stopped us to ask where we were from and what we thought about Chile and hoped we were having a good time. English is not widely spoken though so we’re adding to our Spanish vocabulary and I’m getting quite good at miming things like contact lens cleaning solution – it makes ordering food something of a risky business but we’ve done OK so far.
As in Mendoza there are dogs everywhere and the night time barking can be quite spectacular. There were even dogs asleep on the top of San Cristobel hill in the shady spots. They wouldn’t have been allowed in the funicular so I imagine they must have walked!