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Windows on the world
Pacific Journal
Santiago
Harvey
’s Pacific Journal ~ 2007
2.
Sao Paulo
to
Santiago
,
Chile
Dep 11.00; arrive 14.10
LAN-Chile
LA755. Flying time 4 hours 10
minutes. Distance 2586 km
Wednesday 21 February
Up at 6.30. I don’t feel much like
breakfast and I’m still a bit queasy on the road to the airport.
When we check out at the hotel the ever-helpful Eduardo oozes charm as
usual and then in what appears to be a spontaneous gesture (albeit
well-practiced) he takes out the pin-badge from his lapel and presents it to me.
His side-kick, hovering just behind Eduardo, presents his badge to Sue. Perhaps
they do synchronised swimming for relaxation.
We get into our taxi wearing badges displaying the flag of
Brazil
surrounded by the name of the hotel and arrive at the airport in plenty of
time. After we check in we find an
internet café. I haven’t heard
back from Malcolm and I want to send him an email in case he doesn’t have his
mobile phone switched on. They
change the gate number (without making an announcement in English, of course)
but we eventually realise and board without mishap.
Sue has another breakfast but I decline.
I don’t even want to read and I just doze.
We are in the middle of the plane so we don’t have much of a view as we
fly over the
Andes
. And this is our only chance.
Like life, this is a one-way trip, and we won’t fly over the
Andes
again. We do get glimpses of the
mountains, enough to know that they are majestic!
We land in
Santiago
about 1.30 pm and muddle through immigration and customs.
Arriving from
Brazil
we had been told that we would need yellow fever vaccination certificates, but
no-one wants to check and Sue’s exemption certificate isn’t put to the test.
Just as well; it looks like a mother’s letter asking for her daughter
to be excused games. There is a text waiting for me from Malcolm, with the
bank’s mobile phone number. I try
an ATM anyway but I am rejected again because of insufficient funds, so I use a
credit card, an expensive way of drawing cash.
A very smart and charming young man had helped me find the ATMs; now
it’s payback time. He was touting
for taxis. I had walked past all the
official taxi stands on the way to the ATM, and by now Sue was also arranging a
taxi, but I feel cornered. I ask how
much, and I am told 25,000 pesos. I
tell him I was expecting it to be around 12,000.
Alright, he says, 17,000. I
know I’m being conned, but off we go. We
drive towards the city, the foothills of the
Andes
all but hidden in haze or smog.
San Cristobal
Tower
, Josefina Edwards de Ferari,
Santiago
,
Chile
Location 33.26S 70.40W
(GMT –3 hours) 1,000 Peso =
£1
This hotel is another palace and our room is luxurious but we feel
travel-stained. I haven’t fully
recovered from my sickness and diarrhoea, and Sue has a headache verging on a
migraine. I send a text message to
the bank in the
UK
, but by now they will be closed and I don’t expect an instant response.
We wander about the hotel, checking out the health club (it will cost us
US$5 a day each if we want to swim). None
of the restaurants have dinner menus on display, so we can’t decide which to
go to. We go outside and sit by
another pool (probably free, this one) shared with the Sheraton next door.
It’s nice to feel fresh air again, and the temperature is very
pleasant. There is an evening
bar-b-q here, which has the advantage of being informal, but the wind is cool
and we think that when the sun goes down it will be too cold to eat outdoors.
Sue wants to have dinner in our room, which is brought to us by ‘our
butler’. We turn the light out
early again.
Thursday 22 February
I wake after 10 hours sleep. Sue had
diarrhoea in the night, but still had more sleep than she has been getting.
Still no news from my bank, so I send an urgent reminder.
We go up to the 21st floor for breakfast, views over the city
and to the mountains, but already it’s hazy.
I get a reply from the bank: “It should work, try again.”
We go down to the ATM and with much relief I get cash with my bank card.
I ask the concierge for a map and we plan our day.
Sue will rest in the morning, by the pool, and we will try the cable car
up San Cristobal Hill later in the day when the smog might have cleared.
I will go downtown on the metro. On
leaving the hotel the doorman checks that I know where I’m going.
Then he runs after me, and warns me not to wear my rucksack on my back.
I make my way to the nearest station: Pedro de Valdivia.
It seems appropriate. I have
lived with the first Gobernador of
Chile
for the last two weeks, reading Isobel Allende’s book: “Inés
of my Soul”. The metro is easy
to use and I get off at Moneda. I
wander past some lovely old buildings heading for Plaza de Armas, site of the
original settlement in the 16th century.
My old friend Pedro sits majestically on his horse.
I had 
read about his journey from
Spain
to
Peru
before he conquered
Chile
, and then read about the crossing of the desert, the fights with the Indians,
and the staking out of the Plaza. I
am disappointed that there is no statue to his mistress, Ines de Suárez, first Gobernada
of
Santiago
. If Pedro conquered
Chile
and fought the Indians, it was Inez who really founded
Santiago
. I’m disappointed, but not
surprised. We don’t do many
statues of women. I sit a while and
soak in the atmosphere, then walk down to the
Mapoucho
River
. It’s fast-flowing, even now in
the height of summer, but it’s bound by concrete walls to contain the spring
surges from the snow-melts. It has
been tamed, just as the Spaniards tamed the valley, and ultimately the Mapuche
Indians. I try to imagine it as it
used to be. In the early days the
Spaniards saw the river as a natural defence, not realising the Indians could
swim it. I head back to the Metro
and get stung for 5,000 pesos by a student raising funds for university.
Allegedly. She seems
genuinely distressed that I don’t give her 10,000 pesos.
I meet up with Sue at the hotel and we have a delicious buffet lunch at the
restaurant by the outdoor pool. She
is looking more relaxed than for a long time.
We rest for a while and then walk round the back of the hotel and on to
Parque Metropolitano where we board the teleférico,
a cable car. 
We
find ourselves sitting opposite each other in a small glass bubble, just big
enough for two. The ride up Cerro
San Cristóbal is over 2,000 metres, rising steadily for the most part, brushing
the tops of the trees. The city is
spread out to one side, and half way up the view opens up on the other side as
we follow the line of a ridge. The
new view is a vast plain, covered in low-rise housing.
On both sides of the ridge, development seems to stop where the hills
start. In
Kingston
Jamaica
the most desirable residences were in the hills, with better views and fresher
air, but
Santiago
has remained on the level. The
cable car stops short of the top, and we have to walk the last few hundred
metres. Hemmed in by radio masts,
the huge (36 metre) statue of the Virgen
de la Inmaculada watches over
the city 
below. In front of Mary there are
tiers of benches, the ground falling in an amphitheatre, with an altar at the
bottom. A recording is playing of
monks chanting. It is a beautiful
spot. We have a drink in the café
and suddenly realise that above and beyond the distant line of hills, scarcely
visible because of the smog, is a huge range of snow-clad mountains.
The
Andes
!
Back at the hotel we don’t feel very hungry, and so we venture out looking for
somewhere to have a snack. We find a
tapas bar where we can sit in the courtyard.
The menu is in Spanish and although our waiter is charming and willing he
can only translate bits, but we end up with a delicious and well-balanced
selection of dishes. Back at the
hotel we don’t put the lights out until after 10.00 pm.
We almost feel like grown-ups! It
has been a good day. We may never
get to South America again, but I could certainly spend more time in
Santiago
.
Next
leg:
3.
Santiago
to
E
aster Island
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