Saturday 26 September

We actually lasted until 6pm on the first day, and then took an antihistamine to make sure we slept well despite the jetlag. It worked! Frances woke at about 3am but then went back to sleep while I slept more or less solidly until 7:15. There were a few bursts of people talking but otherwise very quiet.


We hit the streets at about 9am and wandered past Cerro (ie hill) Santa Lucia, and across the Rio Mapoche (the river named after the local indigenous folk). This is thoroughly canalised and griffiti'd and the only birds present were Kelp Gulls.

We then found our way to the funicular up through Parq Municipal. This was quite a fun ride up into low cloud. We could still see the ground but the large statue of the Virgin was hard to spot in the mist.









It was relatively tasteful for something like that - possibly because it is a religious artefact (we were told that a Pope travelled in the funicular on a visit to the city) rather than a commercial one (eg Big Anything in Australia).

Obvious everywhere were dogs. They all look in OK condition whether with owners (wheher owners were employed or homeless) or strays. No-one seemed to fuss about them.

We checked out the Virgin (and a couple of additions to the bird list) and the bano (aka dunnies - not free but you did get get handed a chunk of paper for your 150 pesos). Next we went for a walk shown on a small map we were given. This turned out to be a load of cobblers since it gave totally bogus view of the hills on the road. However the fog had lifted enough for good views over the huge city (6+m people) nestled in the foothills of the Andes.

Getting back down to the river level we went looking for the Archaeological Museum. This was made difficult by half the streets on the ground not being on the maps and, in the case of the tourist maps, the logos for the museums blotting out the street names. This led to my first Chilean oxymoron: a helpful map. We eventually found he place after about 40 minutes of searching. We discovered that we had walked straight past it in our early search - it looked like a courtyard for a restaurant.

It was joined with the Fine Arts Museum and while small the shows were quite good. It was a pleasure to find that people aged 60 were admitted free – and the staff didn't even check our passports - possibly a little rude for two well preserved seniors. Most of the Archaeological stuff was relatively recent, but rather well presented. The key works in the fine arts parts were drawings in pencil (lapiz) or ink (tinta)by Valentina Cruz. Interestingly it was open until 6pm rather than the 2pm stated in the Lonely Planet book.

We then went for lunch at an Italian joint which dealt out excellent pasta and vino tinto. It was a very busy place and justifiably so. We were only helped out once by a diner when our language didn't match that of the server. The place was opposite a bottiglia which subsequently served us a nice bottle of 2006 Merlot for about $6.50.

Next stop was the Belles Arts Museum, also open until 6pm so we went in for a squizz. Frances spotted a “no photos” sign which we observed until it became clear we were the only ones doing so. So the second Chilean oxymoron is an unused digital camera. There was a permanent display of Chilean art, which was OK, and a display of rather modern work by some guy who had moved to, an died in, Berlin. This was OK but not memorable. The oxymoron was evident in the behaviour of other punters.

The last sentence was a temporary condition when we met the special exhibition of works by Mario Irarrazzardi. He did things in bronze and copper. His two styles were basically works involving lots of figurines on a flat base or body parts on a large scale. They were very interesting and many photos were were taken.


After this Frances headed back to the hotel to crash while I went to find out why Avenida Bernardo O'Higgins was devoid of traffic. It turned out to be a political rally by (I think) the Gay Party: the signs on their truck were aboout 'diversity' but the flags were rainbow - see later references in Cusco - more flamboyant members of the crowd were certainly reminiscent of characters in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (and I am not referring to the bus). As well as the supporters of the party, and a good crop of rubberneckers, there were plenty of cops present but there was no grief – possibly because of oxymoron 2. Some of the activity by the crowd would certainly not have been permitted under some relatively recent regimes in Chile!