Last day in Santiago

San Miguel is a fairly run down area south of the centre of Santiago. In an effort to improve the environment mural artists were commissioned to paint huge murals and an outdoor museum was created.

The journey there involved the subway - again it was very crowded. This time Martin got on and the doors shut on his rucksack so squashing our lunch! He had to wait for me at the next stop.

We returned to the city changing twice on the subway. We managed not to get squashed and to get on the same train.  Although at one point Martin was on the escalator, I was on the stairs and after running parallel for a bit they started to go in different directions. It was disconcerting but we ended up on the same platform.

We walked through the city stopping to watch the start of a bike charity ride;

Walking through plazas with wisteria trees in full bloom;

The National Library is mentioned in guidebooks as containing free public loos but actually it's a lovely building with several exhibitions including one showing costumes worn in Atacama desert dance festivals.

We made a short visit to the building which was used as a detention centre by the secret police from 1973-1975. Outside the names of the victims are engraved in the pavements and the banner suggests there are still problems in current times....

We sat in the shade in the main plaza with a singer on our left and chaps playing pan pipes on our right.

We estimated that we have learnt about 140 Spanish words although Google Translate has been a boon. Both of us agree that we prefer Chile to Argentina. The land is more fertile and the people so friendly. After a quiet morning we will catch our flight home on Sunday - keen to see family and friends but sad to end our trip.

A disappointing day out

We decided to have a day out on the coast in Valparaiso, a 90 minute bus ride away.

To get to the bus terminal we had to take the subway which was hot and crowded. I got on just as the doors were closing, one of which slammed into my arm. Martin was left standing on the platform so we communicated through the doors that I would wait for him at the next stop.

On arrival in Valparaiso, we had a 30 minute walk through the commercial sector. There was a street market on and it was a chaotic and noisy walk. I kept saying it will be better when we get to the old town as I had read several travel blogs which extolled it's virtues. It never did get better. There were some colourful houses and murals but on the whole it's a shabby place with poor housing and not at all what we had been led to believe. It was really disappointing.

We kept at it though, climbing up into the hills to follow the route I had marked on the map to see the famous murals.

There are numerous funiculars to assist the residents to get to their homes on the hills.

An impromptu slide;

A local park where people hire bikes for the kids to cycle round on presumably because with the hills they don't otherwise get a chance. There was also a drum group playing.

After our lunch we didn't hang around for long and despondently walked back to the bus terminal.

Smog

Our next step was to climb up Cerro San Cristobal to take in the view of the city and the surrounding mountains. It was a hot and sticky walk up. At the top is a statue of Our Lady and a chapel,  and preparations were underway for the Pope's visit in the new year. We could not see the mountains because of the smog which was a real shame.

It was really hot so we went home for a siesta. Later in the afternoon we went to the memory museum. This was all about the military coup in 1973, life under Pinochet's regime and the atrocities committed by the secret police. It was a sobering visit. No wonder there were always protesters on the A30 outside the house where Pinochet lived when in the UK. 

Murals

Santiago

Because of British Airways we have 3 days here - a month before our trip they cancelled our Saturday flight home and rescheduled us to Sunday.

On our first full day we walked up to the bohemian Bellavista area to see murals. On the way we crossed what I'd hoped was a nice river we could walk along another day but it was just a channel of fast flowing muddy water.

We wandered around taking lots of photos.