City Livin'
First thing we noticed upon our arrival in Santiago? The smells. A mix of car exhaust cut by wafts of fresh fruit and grilled mystery meat, all rounded out by the perfume and sweat of thousands of weekday workers shuffling past us. After weeks of clean Patagonian air, the city smells assaulted our noses, eliminating any memory of the nature cleanse they had taken for the past month. And you know what? We loved it. As the Old Spice TV commercial goes, scent is the strongest link to our memories - or something like that. The city scents immediately brought a wave of comfort built from over a decade of city living. It was familiar, and it was our home for the next 7 days.
Sights and smells from Santiago’s markets
Chile’s capital is large, nestled amongst mountains that give it the look of a grown-up Denver. And most of its buildings are relatively new. Frequent cycles of earthquakes, roughly 1 every 20 years, have taken down most of the city’s older buildings. Talk about a resilient city.
Santiago’s hazy skyline
But it was Chile’s history, and the resilience of its people, that surprised me the most. From a few walking tours and museums, we quickly learned that Chile’s recent history was a messy one, and we were visiting a city that had seen relative peace only in the past 30 years. In the early 70’s, with little warning, the country’s military bombed its own capital building with its president inside. A coup had been brewing inside the government to displace President Salvador Allende, Chile’s democratically-elected socialist leader, and a notoriously cruel dictatorship lead by Pinochet took over for the next two decades. The crazy part is, most of this is recorded, on newscast and video, as is the radio recording of the Allende’s final speech to his country from the presidential palace before its bombed. It’s recent enough that we met many people who had lived through it, most not much older than us. And even crazier, the US government helped incite it! A series of documents were declassified in the late 90s showing Nixon and the CIA’s direct plans to “make [Chile’s] economy scream.” I had previously read about the America’s misguided involvement in Latin America during the Cold War. But to actually be in their country, as an American, hearing it directly from other Chileans while they still accept you with open arms...it was a complicated set of feelings that hit differently than printed words could. The Museum of Memories and Human Rights did a terrific job laying out the rise and fall of the Pinochet’s dictatorship. It’s free and interactive - something not to be missed.
Guards at Chile’s presidential palace. Nearby, graffiti support for Venezuelans fighting against their country’s dictator, Maduro.
Ok, onto some less depressing moments! With our extended time, we hit a lot of great things in Santiago.
Some of them were just “normal” city living. Catching up on Netflix, planning more of our trip, cooking at home and eating on our AirBnB’s rooftop, and even finding a medical clinic for a few vaccinations (getting into Bolivia is complicated).
Rooftop dinner at our AirBnB
We also really enjoyed Santiago’s Metropolitan Park and its Lastarria neighborhood.
Metropolitan Park is Santiago’s Central Park but bigger, which the city proudly boasts. The park sits on a series of hills and has a pool, zoo, church and multiple funiculars to navigate around its vast grounds. The park’s highest peak, Cerro Cristóbal, makes for a great day hike, offering sweeping views of the city and mountains. At the top, many people like to enjoy a popular Chilean summertime drink called mote con huesillo. A combination of one-quarter husked wheat and three-quarters homemade peach syrup, mote is an acquired taste that’s worth a try but impossible to finish unless you’re used to chugging maple syrup on the reg.
Views (👍🏽) and mote (👎🏽) from Cerro Cristóbal
Lastsarria is a small, lively neighborhood lined with terrific restaurants and bars. We went there a few times for dinner and drinks, including Bocanáriz for some thoughtful wine flights, Chipe Libre for Peruvian-Chilean fusion food and pisco tasting, and José Ramón for sandwiches, craft beer and chorrillana, a popular Chilean potato scramble topped with cheese and chorizo (or veggies). For cheaper eats and a more causal crowd, we also explored the Bella Vista neighborhood. We stumbled upon some great traditional Chilean food (read: simple dishes but huge portions) at Galindo, including the pollo cuezlo, a hot stew with pumpkin, chicken, corn and rice. More recs in our map, too.
One of our favorite experiences in Santiago was a market visit and Chilean cooking class though AirBnB Experiences. Stellar time. Fransisco, a professional chef, first lead us on a 90 minute visit through Mercado Central and Vega Central. Afterwards we headed to his colleague’s home to prepare a 4-course meal and drinks. She had renovated her entire first floor into an enormous kitchen that looked straight out of a Crate & Barrel catalogue. I managed to make our pisco sours extra strong (honest mistake 😉) and got my hands dirty making fresh ceviche for the first time. Anushka crushed our main course of pastel del choco, a Chilean corn pie. We drank and stuffed ourselves silly, and then proceeded to dream about the meal during our 3 hour afternoon nap afterwards.
Get in my belly
Outside of a day trip to Valparaiso, that wraps up 7 days soaking up the city in Santiago. Onto Buenos Aires next!
