Early morning flight on Sky Airlines back to Santiago. The flight left at 7:00 am.
From the Santiago airport we caught an airport bus, Buses Centropuerto, into town. Its final stop is the Los Heroes subway stop, only a couple of blocks from our hostel in the Barrio Brasil section. It took about a half a hour. And was far cheaper than a taxi. Only 1,600 pesos a person.
The new hostel is housed in a cavernous old home. The interior rooms may need a lick of paint but the private rooms on the first floor ooze character. Tall ceilings, bright colors and spacious suites. Shabby chic? Part frat house, part Soho loft.
After settling in, we take the subway to the fish market for a fresh fish lunch. We opted for a simple restaurant on the second floor. It looked like the same restaurant we ate at when we first visited the market in 2006. But it wasn't. I checked the photos from our previous trip on our website.
From there we wandered around the city center. We looked for the free English language tour that supposedly left everyday from the main square but had no luck. We ducked into the main tourist office for information on possible tours to the Sewell mining site. The tours left Santiago every Saturday morning but returned too late for us to make our plane home. No luck.
From the square we walked over to Barrio Bellavista to ascend Cerro San Cristobal for sunset views. The sidewalks were surprisingly crowded for a Thursday mid-afternoon. Neither the men wearing business suits nor the women dressed in work suits seemed in a hurry to return to their offices. They hung out on the sidewalks smoking and talking. No work was happening this afternoon in this town.
When we reached Cerro SC we learned that neither the funicular or the tram were working. We could share a taxi - for 1,000 pesos a person - that would take us up the hill. We joined a mother and son for the taxi ride up. The taxi driver told me that the funicular should be repaired in two months - do me. As the taxi climbed up the paved hillside road, the driver hade to negotiate road space with the numerous bikers and runners making the ascent. The hill rises to a height of nearly 3,000 feet, so a run or a bike ride up is not to be attempted by the weekend athlete. Yet, many of those we passed did not look like the lean, athletic types.
At the parking area at the top the taxi passengers disembark. We climbed to the summit. A giant statue of the Virgen dons the Cerro's crest. We go back the parking area for the best sunset views.
Getting down from the Cerro is a little trickier. Not many taxis; too many passengers. We wait. When a taxi appears, a woman quickly jumps into the front seat leaving Ross and I in the back. But the taxi driver would not leave until we had four passengers. Many couples were ahead of our single woman front seat passenger. But she vaulted ahead. So we waited again. Finally a single male passenger appears. Turns out, he is a young German doctor. He is in Santiago for only a few days. Glad he hopped into our taxi, otherwise we would probably still be waiting for a ride down with our pushy Chilena.
Subway back to the hostel. Dinner at a small cafe on the Plaza Brasil. Nice atmosphere. Crappy pizzas. Why does no one I this country know how to make a pizza? Do they use crackers for crust? And why is there never any tomato sauce? Another food mystery. It joins our growing list of Chilean food-related imponderables. Do they really like their bread stale and tasteless? Does anyone brew coffee? Has Nescafé bought all the coffee makers in the country? Why do they only serve food with tiny cocktail napkins? Is no one as sloppy as we are? And why are fresh oranges readily served but orange juice is always a version of Tang?
We walk a few blocks to our hostel. Young people everywhere: restaurants sidewalks, bars. We begin to feel like aliens. We had better get back our room before we are reported for being too old to be on the streets this late. Luckily, we make it back in time.
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