Easter Island Adventure - Chile

09 Nov 2017 . category: Travel . Comments
#EasterIsland

Day 1: Arrival in Santiago

I arrived in Santiago, Chile via a red-eye from Houston. It wasn’t so bad though, as I’d had the foresight to move my seat assignment to the back of the plane before boarding, and was rewarded with an empty seat next to me. So for the first time in my life, I managed to sleep more than three hours on a red-eye, score!

I first went to just wander around the downtown area, where I was most surprised by the almost total lack of tourists. It was quite strange to be in the downtown of a major international city, and basically hear no English being spoken. I’d known beforehand that Santiago wasn’t exactly a must-see tourist destination, but I was still surprised at the distinct lack of (obvious) foreigners. In general, I had more language difficulties in South America than almost anywhere else I’d been. Perhaps because almost the entire region speaks Spanish, fewer people learn another language? (cf. Europe). It was great to see that the “repeat yourself louder and slower” behavior is universal.

After lunch, I decided to hit up some museums before Lucy’s arrival the next day. First stop was the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. I’m generally not a big art museum fan, but pre-Columbian art seemed like it might be sufficiently interesting and novel. Sadly…art is just really not my thing. I wouldn’t recommend it to those not generally interested in art/sculpture. Thankfully, the next museum was more up my alley, the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. As I’ve said before, I try to make an effort to learn a little bit about the history of country’s I visit, so I’d read A Nation of Enemies about the Pinochet dictatorship. But the museum was still added a lot, especially because I didn’t think the book was particularly good. It’s always fascinating to see how nations and peoples reckon with their past, especially in cases such as this one where that past is both very recent and very dark. If you’re ever visiting the museum, I especially recommend stopping by the multimedia presentation for the 1989 Plebiscite which includes a lot of amazing footage of the political ads that were run, and the scene on the streets as returns came in. Here is one such ad for the No (anti-Pinochet) side.

After the museum, I took the subway back to the hostel, purchasing a bip! card along the way (named after the noise it makes when it’s tapped). Taking public transportation is one of those things I try to do in cities I visit, as it’s usually a good experience, saves money, and leaves one with a good souvenir! I ended the evening by wandering around the Bellavista area, which I think has a similar vibe to the West Village or Williamsburg: previously an area for artists, but now increasingly gentrified/touristy. The Patio Bellavista was especially so. It had a bit of manufactured feeling, with every bar/restaurant consciously cool. Each had a hip name and interestingly designed menu and outdoor seating area. My favorite was the Montana Bar!

Day 2: Santiago

Lucy arrived this morning on the same red-eye from Houston (award availability sadly meant we couldn’t be on the same flight), and we had a pretty lazy day in Santiago. We started at the Mercado Central, a local fish market with a lot of little restaurants inside. I was expecting something pretty touristy, but actually the fish-market side seemed to be frequented by actual locals. It certainly was very chaotic/messy/smelly:

The restaurants toward the center are another story, the typical tourist-harassing restaurants. At the recommendation of this blogger we ate at YiYi. It definitely seemed more authentic/local, but neither of us thought the seafood was particularly good, oh well.

Next on the list was La Vega market, which ended up not at all what we were expecting. It’d popped up on a couple of attraction lists, as a market where both locals and tourists shopped. I was basically expecting a less beautiful version of something like the Istanbul Spice Bazaar. Instead, it looked like a run-down industrial area, which happened to have some sketchy looking market stalls. We’d read that this neighborhood wasn’t exactly safe at night, but it even looked quite sketchy during the day, so we quickly left. It was pretty jarring, as Bellavista was only a couple of blocks away.

Dinner that day was at Azul Profundo where we had some great ceviche. I attempted to order a famous local drink, the terremoto but sadly they were out. It’s this alcoholic cocktail/smoothie, traditionally served in a 1L glass. Terremoto means earthquake, and if you’re up for it, you can order another round, the replica or aftershock. I instead settled for a pisco sour, which I think is slightly more Peruvian than Chilean, but whatever. Actually, the true national origins of pisco are a source of surprisingly ferocious debate. After our dinner, we had a rather bizarre experience while paying for our food here. We were splitting the check, and happened to both be using the same credit card (no points for guessing what popular-with-millenials travel card it was). But the waitress must’ve concluded instead that I was splitting our dinner onto my two identical credit cards (with different-gendered names) because she twice asked for my response on both cards (e.g. signing). Perhaps someone reading this can chime in with another explanation, but it’s hard not to read into this in a gendered way?

Before heading back, we stopped by the grocery store for some snacks for Easter Island. Food on the island is (understandably) incredibly pricey, so we’d be told to stock up with snacks beforehand. Yay for rice cakes and peanut butter, a wonderful throwback to traveling across Europe. Sadly we weren’t able to buy any jam, because it’s mysteriously sold in bags?

We also learned that Chileans absolutely love mayo. Or at least, that’s the only conclusion I can draw from two whole racks devoted to the stuff, in a not particularly large grocery store:

And of course, it’s also available in bags, even those the size of my head!

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