The update of this page was written at 4:45 pm on the 25th of September, Santiago time. Subjectively it was 8am on 26th, and I had not slept for something like 26 hours so what follows may be even less reliable than my usual stuff.
The flight from Sydney to Auckland was unremarkable. On arrival we had to get off the plane (with all our carry on kit) and go through security to get back into the waiting area. I suppose something has to be done to find work for security people. They were even kind enough to run me through the explosives swab rubbish! I noted that all the guards were pakeha: presumably all the Maori have jobs in Sydney. On getting
to the departure gates I was impressed by the garbage bins: presumably the language on the signs reflects the target audience.The flight on to Santiago was basically a long flight. Service was good and only bumpy for about 90 minutes in the middle. There were a good lot of games to play, and about 50 films. I enjoyed watching (again) Shrek and Madagascar but found the latest Terminator boring – basically a series of explosions not connected by a plot.
On arrival the only stupidity was the Chileans hiding their “reciprocity fee” counter so that we got to the front of the immigration queue and then had to go back to pay. This is apparently a well known problem - at least by regular visitors – but has thus far proven resistant to the application of common sense. No other problems and we found the recommended taxi folks. They did a good job of getting us to the Hotel (including taking us along a river - probably the Rio Mapoche - which meant I had several birds on my Chile list, including 3 lifers, before getting to the pub).
A minor problem was that the simplest route into the Hotel Vegas was blocked by a semi-erected marquee. As it turned out that the marquee was for a wine show (and the taxi fare was not increased by the 2km detour) I cut them a little slack
After checking in we went for a str
oll around the town trying to find the Tourist Information Centrre. This included a visit to the Plaza del Arrmes (aka Plaza Meior) and the Cathedral. This was a baroque masterpiece worthy of any European city, and free to enter (cf Cusco in a few days time). They also had some info about a forthcoming parade for Carmen of the Snows. I have tried to find out more about this person but neither Google nor Wikipedia have been forthcoming.Our foray included the Central Market, which wasn’t that good a market. However it did include a very nice café which dealt out a nice seafood lunch together with litres of Cristal (beer). Eventually we found the Information Centre – small and not that helpful – and wandered back towards the hotel.
It was interesting that there were lots of buskers all round the city. Some of these were jugglers at traffic lights – much more worthy of support than windscreen washers – or the usual acrobats but a pair of clown mimes were very clever. They involved passing pedestrians (or occasionally security guards) in their act and had a crowd of some hundreds, spread over an area about 100m long, watching their act.
I suspect we hit the pit about 6pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment