Day 60. We had so much fun on our bike tour around Bogota that we decided to do the same in Santiago.
The Green Bike tours of Santiago
In the morning, we took the city tour. Highlights include …
Santiago Cathedral in Plaza de Armas
Old train station designed by Mr Eiffel Tower
We had a lunch of meat soup in the main market. We learned that to take the edge of your hunger, every meal has to begin with some bread and a pot of “pebre”, a flavoursome red sauce. Each venue has its own recipe.
Pebre
Desert was Mote & Huesillos, peach syrup with some barley with a dried peach thrown in for good measure. This desert is sold everywhere and you’re never more than 20 metres from a trolley selling it.
Peachy!
In the afternoon, we took the politics and dog tour. The beautiful stray chocolate dog wasn’t originally planned for the tour, but decided to join us for most of it.
Chocolate dog
The numerous stray dogs of Santiago are affectionately known as “defenders of the city”. Many look like pure breeds, though the mongrel looking dogs are also called Ciltro, the term for an ostracised individual of mixed indigenous and Spanish background. The dogs are generally well fed and looked after by the Santiago population and are far and away the most psychologically stable dogs we’ve come across displaying bizarre human behaviour such as checking for traffic before crossing and impeccable manners. They never bark or beg for food, but wait at a polite distance until they are offered. They then gently take the morsel, nod their gratitude, then retire back to a polite distance. If you don’t believe us, watch this clip of the hero dog of Santiago saving another dog’s life. Both dogs lived to tell us the tale!
Santiago is renowned for its jazz bars so in the evening we returned to the bohemian district of Bellavista to look for Bar Perseguidor which had been recommended to us. We asked for directions from a young lad working in a corner store and he replied that his Spanish wasn’t very good. He wondered whether we spoke either English or Arabic. Safe shocked him by asking for directions iin Arabic. Safe was then instantly befriended by the Palestinian shopkeeper, though he was a little concerned that he was directing us to a bar serving alcohol!
We took this shot so we'd remember the name of the club!
Tonight was Bossanova night. we were expecting to listen to Latin American elevator music but were pleasanty surprised by an excellent Brasilian band singing “Girl From Ipanema” style music. Our drink of choice was Pisco.
Factoid: Pisco is a traditional Chilean spirit made from grapes which tastes a little like Italian Grappa mixed with a little nail polish remover. It is never drunk neat and the flavour is usually masked with lemon juice and sugar to make a Pisco Sour, or more recently, mixed with Coca Cola to make a … urm … Piscola!
While we’re on the subject of drinks, there is also a drink called the Terremoto (Spanish for earthquake) which is a litre of poor white wine and pineapple. To order a second round, you ask for a Replica (Spanish for aftershock).
Opinionoid: As expected, we were surprised by Santiago. It is a very cultural and economically advanced city (Santiago was due to “officially” join the group of developed nations in 2012 before the earthquake). The weather at this time of year is stunningly bright, sunny and warm without humidity during the day and pleasantly cool at night. The people we’ve interacted with are noticeably happy and friendly. The recent earthquake has clearly embedded a scar in people’s psyche and it is constantly mentioned in the street and on the radio, however it seems to have brought the population together at the same time.