Not Sure Which City I Prefer.....

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

I had the best time in Valdivia. I felt like I was with friends in the cute hostel there. You can imagine how gutted I was to leave and how tempted I was to stay. I wasn´t particularly looking forward to going to Santiago as everyone had told me how smoggy and dirty it is and of course, the crazy Argentinian assured me that Buenos Aires was soooo much better and that above all, the men ( well the women from his point of view ) are better looking in BA .....hmmmm I know there is at least one Chilean reading this so we will say no more about it..... !!!

Anyway, Santiago is competing strongly with BA as the best capital city I have been to yet. First of all, Santiago is smaller, so you go see loads of the main tourist sites in a relatively short amount of time. Secondly, the ice cream here is outstandingly good, especially the chirimoya flavour ( custard apple). Thirdly, it has a beautiful park in the middle of the city called Parque Metropolitano, which provides a tranquil get away from the smog and heat of the city. FInally, it is near to some of the best vineyards in South America and the back drop of the city is the Andes Mountains. How great is that ?

On my first day here, I visited the Cerro Santa Lucia which is a hill which has a variety of statues and stair cases leading to the top. It looks like something you would find in Hyde Park as the style of the monuments is very Victorian. Unfortunately, I was on a whistle stop tour as I only had a day to see the sites. I walked to the Moneda which is the Chilean ´Parliament´. I have to say, I wasn´t that impressed but it was something I had to see. From there, I walked to the Plaza De Armas which is the main square. What I loved about it is the complete contrast of the buildings. The main important buildings are there, for example, the cathedral. Right next to this grand and clearly antiquated building was a huge skyscraper. This concrete mass contrasted even further with the palm trees of the square. I sat there for a while trying to fend off a guy who tried to read my tarot cards and in an effort to impress me, told me I had a secret admirer, I worked with animals ( he might be right if you count debtors and corporate clients in this psychic analysis) and that my favorite colour is purple. He was wrong, by the way. From there I looked around the Museo De Santiago, which is quite tacky in that every stage in the history of the city is illustrated by plasticine figures, but it is a really interesting way to understand the place.

By this time I was hungry. After losing my way several times, I managed to get to the Central Market. The building is amazing in itself as it was built at the turn of the century. For a market that reeks of fish, it is very ornate. I found a fish restaurant and asked the waiter ´oh just bring me what that guy is eating´. My lunch consisted of a disgusting cold fish soup with about a million unidentified raw shell fish in it. I will never make that mistake again. The taste was great but the texture and the fact that it was cold made me want to hurl. Now. Up until this point, I have eaten some of the best fish ever. To make up for this, I bought a cheese and prawn empenada ( it´s like a cornish pasty) which was delicious and reminded me of my mission to eat my way around South America. I am doing that very successfully as you can imagine.

At this point, I walked to Cerro San Cristobal which is a hill forming part of the Parque Metropolitano. It has a cable car and an Ascensor which is kind of a lift but the word escapes me in English. This is how I got to the top of the hill. You can walk, but why if you have other modern technology ? The view is spectacular as you can see from my photos. There is also a huge figure of the Virgin Mary at the summit. This comes complete with an open air church and religious music. It was enough to persuade me to attend mass as there are three advantages of this : 1) I will get to heaven quicker (2) I can tan whilst doing something good (3) the views are pretty damn stunning. You can tell I am not religious and I am sorry if I offended anyone!

The museum of Pablo Neruda´s house ( for those of you who shamefully don´t know who the guy is, he is one of the best poets in the history of Spanish), La Chascona, is nearby and so that was my next stop. ´La Chascona´refers to his third wife and it means ´woman with the crazy, uncontrollable hair´. This is how the guide explained it and added quite charmingly ´hmm yes , a bit like you hair´. Oh yeah, hilarious. What does that geek know about hair products in Chile ?! The house was beautiful and decorated in the style of a ship. Neruda was obsessed with the sea and anything naval and he styled many of the rooms in this way. The house is also split into different sections : one section was for his guests and another for him and his wife. There are also a number of secret passages that lead to the street. They were built so that Neruda could meet his lovers .... One of the rooms was dedicated to Capri as the poet spent a period of time there when he was expelled from Chile. This is what the film Il Postino is based on. 

The last day that I was in Santiago, I spent it at the Piscina Tupahe in the Parque Metropolitano. It is one of the best public pools I have been to. You can see from the photos that it was surrounded by palm trees and vegetation and the views once again are fabulous. If only I had a frozen marguerita.

I love this place and I have still not decided which city I prefer....

If you haven´t sponsored me and you would like to, please do so at www.justgiving.com /ciccia