Santiago, Chile

Our first bout of major drama on this trip...

 We get to the bus station with 10 minutes to departure only to realize we don't have Archer's passport. After a domestic dispute in the terminal, our level headed Isabel sorted out a plan. In the end, they got on the bus and I went back for the passport (and luckily found it in the radiator...) and joined them 2 hours later in Santiago. My airbnb host even gave me a free bus ticket. Crisis averted.

Our apartment is a ways from downtown, but the metro is right across the street. We got up and went for breakfast in the morning at a small café. They were missing half of their menu items, so choice was limited. I'll never understand how people run a business with a small menu and then run out of food to make 90% of it 2 hours after opening. We are gradually learning that Chile is EXPENSIVE! It's slightly pricier than home....for a South American country, we are shocked. Even our pizza dinner the next day, which was delicious, cost us more than in Canada. We learned our lesson quick and reverted to supermarket grub for breakfast and lunch and completes, lomitos and other cheap eats in our neighborhood for dinner. We actually have some amazing ceviche 5 mins from our place and passable empanadas.

To be honest, none of us were wowed by Santiago. We were told to expect that. It does seem like a great city to live in and raise a family, but not much to do on the tourist front. That coupled with our busy days exploring Valparaiso made for a lot of downtime in Santiago.

We went running. Actually, Luke and I ran our long run into downtown on Sunday and discovered that the main road along the river is closed to traffic each Sunday to allow for "family active time". There are tons of people and families out cycling, running and skating. There are little stations set up along the track with lounge areas, hydration stations and gyms promoting. It was great for us because it gave off a race like atmosphere that made our long run a lot more enjoyable. 

We did go out and explore what were listed as some of the more interesting neighbourhoods here. We headed down to La Vaga market for some eats the one day. This place is massive and it's only by extreme luck that we found a coffee stand we had read about online, We grabbed some spices and fruit and tried our first casuela here, which was tasty and filled with chicken and a corn bread like topping.

We also strolled around barrios Brasil and Yungay. They sounded promising for good food and street art. Sadly, both were limited and the area was a bit of a let down.

Our North American tastes also got the best of us. We were craving burgers, real ones. So after careful research, I found a joint on google that looked like it would no disappoint. We trekked out, far out to one of the last subway stops in the south of the city. Then we walked, through a somewhat questionable neighbourhood and came to our destination...an apartment building. WTF Google?! So after speaking broken Spanish to a security guard, and finally some English to a Chilean couple, we learned that the burger joint is actually a guy in the apartments who cooks out of his home and delivers his offerings throughout the city pre-arranged.....he then asked us if we knew anyone in the neighbourhood. After answering no, he alluded to the fact that we likely didn't want to hang around as it was getting late. I think in the end, it was completes and empanadas again...


Our last day was spent at the Lido (Chile's version of Walmart). Admittedly it was hot and we wanted a playground for the kids. We caved and bought them their first McDonalds meal ever. They didn't touch it and couldn't play in the play thing due to age restrictions. So we picked up a few provisions, rode a mechanical fire truck and called it a day,

It's an early flight to Lima tomorrow and we're looking forward to heading home for a break and some family and friends time...

Arch says stay cool...