We slept for over 10 hours! Wow, that has got to be a record. And obviously well needed. So, our day is off to a late start, but in South America, I don’t think that is necessarily a problem! Today we head down to Plaza de Armas, which has been described as the symbolic heart of Chile. It is a 20 minute walk, through streets teeming with people, and that get busier as we approach the plaza. Ringed by the Metropolitan Cathedrale of Santiago, the post office and various government buildings located in historic edifices, the plaza does serve as the center of the grid pattern layout in Santiago. It is a beautiful space, full of trees, benches and walkways where people are resting, relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day.
The cathedrale is amazing, its neoclassical design finished in 1789 by an Italian designer (after a series of other structures fell to fires or earthquakes over the years). We wandered inside to view its grandeur – gold upon marble upon gold – just stunning in the traditional catholic over the top cathedral kind of way. Next we wander about the plaza, people watching as we head to the Pre-Columbian Art museum a block or two away. Our original plan was to go to the National Historical museum, but it closed last week (yep, we just missed it!) to undergo renovations, and won’t be open again for two or three years. Oops, well, cross that off our list. So, the Pre-Columbian museum will have to do – and what a replacement. I don’t know how good the National museum was, but this place was incredible. The artifacts they have, from stone to clay to iron and gold, were simply amazing. I can’t recount all the different displays, eras and cultures that were on display, but I can say it was incredible, the number of artifacts and the detail associated with each (whether translated or not) was incredible. It was one of the best couple of hours we spent in any museum. (On top of which, I got some great ideas for pottery projects! LOL)
Since it was still fairly early (for Chilean time), we decided to head over to the Barrio Paris-Londres area to look at the architecture and 3-4 storey townhouses that recall European styling and are considered Santiago’s little Europe. The houses are incredible, and as we are wandering down the streets, we stumble upon 38 Londres, which was the “Former Center of Repression and Extermination” in the Pinochet era from 1973 –1975. It is now a memorial to that awful time when the dictatorship kidnapped people and interrogated and tortured them in this unassuming building. We wandered though all the rooms – the entrance and hallway where detainees were held before interrogation, the main interrogation halls, the room where the sick and injured were kept, it was all very somber and kind of creepy. Of course there are 2 sides to every story, and the vast majority of those captured and kept here were from the MIR, Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (the Revolutionary Left Movement) who were themselves a very violent protest group. But still. A torture facility. It does give one pause.
Afterward, we try to find a café for lunch. I had spied the Restaurant Club Radical, right around the corner from Londres 38, and figured, what could be better? Unfortunately, we were the first customers, and all they had was the Menu de Dia, which while cheap, was more than what we wanted (they all have spaghetti, what’s with that?). So before the waiter could start to prepare the meal, we begged off and headed back toward Plaza de Armas to find some sustenance.
After traversing through all the pedestrian streets, with nary a restaurant in sight (plenty of ice cream shops, coffee and pastry places, and the like, but no true restaurants) we finally went off the beaten path and found a cute little sushi restaurant – yes, sushi – to have lunch. Ok, so, it may not be authentic Chilean, but at least its seafood! And I did end up having the empanaditas, served with excellent guacamole, and Ed had his Octopus – and beer and wine – all al fresco with some great music playing in the background from the bandstand in Plaza de Armas. After lunch, we wandered back to the Plaza to watch the band, and some great audience dancers who were having a blast. The band was really great, and had quite a large audience which we joined for a while enjoying the sunshine, the music and the dancing.
Turning away from the impromptu concert (although we don’t know how impromptu it really was, that was a big band with tons of equipment, speakers, etc., and a girl hawking their CD’s – so did they have to pay for the space? Is it first come, first served? Who knows?), we wandered back into the streets looking for the Casa Colorada, the Red House, and one of the best preserved colonial buildings in Santiago. There is a small museum inside, but the actual house itself seems to be the main attraction. The house is literally steps away from where we were watching the band, but there is no open entrance on the main street. We do see a sign pointing around the corner for access, but here again, there is nothing open, just a large metal fence all around the rear of the building. Oh well, it is supposed to be open, without siesta, daily, but either we can’t find the entrance or they are closed today – again, who knows? So we decide to just head back to the apartment, making a quick stop at the grocery store to stock up on our ship supply of wine and snacks, before relaxing a bit on the balcony.
After an hour or so, we are refreshed and head out to La Chascona, the house Pablo Neruda built for his mistress, Matilde Urrutia, in 1953, a five minute walk from the apartment. The name of the house is the nickname he called Matilde, and the house grew from the original living room and bedroom where Matilde lived, to include a kitchen, dining area once Neruda left his wife and moved permanently to La Chascona in 1955. They continued adding on, eventually building the “summer bar” and the library at the top of the property. The house is really cool, literally set into the hillside below San Cristobal, more little cabins on the hillside, connected by gardens and wooden or rock stairs. Neruda was a consummate collector interesting items – anywhere he traveled, he picked up things from Russian nesting dolls to African wooden sculptures to maps – many of which are displayed in the house.
The tour starts with an overview video, touching on Neruda’s life, his ambassadorships, his 2 previous marriages and then the construction of this house for Matilde. It goes on to detail their life together and then and Neruda’s death a few days after the coup that deposed Salvador Allende. Mobs looted and tried to destroy the house after the coup, backing up the trench (like a little creek that ran around the house) so that the house flooded, but Matilde insisted upon having the wake in the living room of the house for the world to see the destruction and understand what was happening in Chile after the coup. Afterward, she focused on repairing the house and preserving Neruda’s memory, starting the Fundacion Pablo Neruda and going on to be quite an activist for her time, remaining in the house until her death in 1985.
After the video, we follow the audio guides all through the house, starting in the Captain’s Bar, , moving through the dining room, carefully navigating the narrow curved staircase in the hidden “secret passage” between the dining room and the bedroom, where Neruda used to make surprise appearances as well as stealthy disappearances when he wanted to nap. Upstairs we explore Matilde’s office, and the guest bedroom, which we guess was Matilde’s original bedroom because the audio guide says she lived in this room. From here, we must go outside, climbing a relatively steep set of wooden stairs, to visit the next part of the house – the living room – which is one of the coolest rooms of all! Perched above the original part of the house, the living room has curved glass windows to look out over the mountains, a gorgeous round stone fireplace and a “fake” window with a valley scene painted inside it to represent the view out the other side of the house. The furniture and the collection of oddities here make it very cozy and livable, and you can just imagine yourself hanging out here relaxing. We get a peek of the upstairs bathroom and bedroom, (you can’t go up, but you can look), then we are back outside and heading up carved rock stairs to the summer bar and library, which are the final areas of the house. On the way there is a lovely rock mural next to the elevated summer bar, now glassed in, but originally open air for Neruda and guests to enjoy in the warmer times of the year. Everyone needs one of these summer bars – it’s a great space, fully equipped with everything you would need in a bar, overlooking the gardens and mountains in the distance. Neruda definitely knew how to live – and entertain! After perusing all of his works in the library, we make our way down to the exit and return to the apartment, checking out all the restaurant options on our way. We need one for tomorrow night, and the hawkers are out in full force, even though it is early. We look at a couple of menus, and all seem fine, but then this one waiter/hawker was so sweet talking to us, and then when we told him manana, he said he “hoped we could come back” and put his hand on his chest. So – we’re done for tomorrow night!
And we’re done for tonight too with reservations at La Bocanariz (mouth/nose). It’s a 15 minute walk from Bellavista, right past the MAVI museum. As usual, the streets are teeming with people, there is even a drum circle going on in the park we cross as we make our way over to the restaurant – what a vibrant and alive city! We are early (of course) but we are seated right away at a high top table next the hostess computer/stand. The table is a little oddly placed, but in the end it is perfect because we can watch the comings and goings of people trying to eat here without reservations (not very likely) and the other areas of the restaurant are slammed packed with tables and little seating areas, while we have lots of space. Fortunately here, the staff speaks excellent English, because it is a wine bar with tons of wines to try and tastings, as well as small plates that sound fabulous – if you can translate everything properly! Not that we’ve had any problem so far with no English speakers, but it is nice here to get proper explanations on some of the dishes. We start off with something called the Ocean to Mountain tapas plate: Crab cerviche, flank steak with a parmesan “cookie” and empanadas that are really sweet and more “gyosa” style than empanadas. There is some sort of fruit, and possibly cheese, inside them. For our main courses, Ed chooses Osso Buco, and it comes out completely different than the norm, instead of on the bone, there are tender slices of lamb carved from the bone, atop sliced potatoes, peas and noodles in some sort of gravy/sauce. I have stuffed piquillo peppers, not stuffed with the traditional goat cheese, but with shredded lamb, set atop amaranth, which is sort of like a Chilean version of grits or creamy polenta. All excellent! As is the wine and the beer - I have a Sauvignon Blanc from Ribera del Lago, which I like so much, I get a 2nd glass, which is met with a disapproving look from the waitress, I suspect because there are so many wines to try here, (180 Chilean alone, over 300 in toto) why would I stick with just one? Ed has a local craft beer, Kross 5 which is a “Cerveza Ale Fuerte” and doesn’t get a withering gaze for ordering it, but actually gets a detailed discussion with the waiter about the overtones and tastes. Ah well, what can we say?
We can say we had a fabulous meal, and a lovely walk back to the apartment stopping on the way to listen to a great street performance consisting of 12 women wearing hats with fuzzy blue hair coming out the top, some with eyebrows lined in blue and white, singing and dancing to some song everyone except us knew. (There were also these giant heads or something parading through the street as we were eating dinner, but we only caught a glimpse of them through the front window.)
Once back at the apartment with our balcony nightcap, we hear drums again. This time much closer, and playing for much longer. We look at each other and shrug, then run to put on our shoes and head out to see what’s going on. Turns out there is huge drum band playing on the sidewalk in front of the University, one street over. They are great, and we stand there for a good while listening and watching them play and dance around. This place has the street performers!
After we’ve heard enough, we return to the balcony for good, have our night cap then head to bed (with the A/C on and the door firmly closed to block out any lingering drum playing) and drift off to sleep after another lovely day in Santiago.
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