Now that the official work part of the trip is done*, it was time for an easy day. We slept in and enjoyed a leisurely morning with a few Zoom calls with friends in both the US and Africa. Then we headed out to see what else Santiago had to offer.
Today wasn’t quite fair to Frank since he had spent the last two days covering miles of territory while I sat in a hotel conference room for hours on end. But he had things to show me and we had meat to walk off. Our fantastic meal at La Cabrera last night was weighing pretty heavy on both of us – demasiado carne! – so we were aiming to get some steps in.
And steps we got! We started with a walk along tha Mapocho River all the way across town to Santa Lucia hill, the remains of a volcano and where it is said that Santiago was born. We climbed to the top to appreciate the views of the city – a bit of fog/smog hung around so the mountains were not nearly as impressive as they generally are. Then off to see the rest of the sights.
We wandered around the Plaza de Armas, the main square of Santiago, where I think every Chilean 4th grader was on a field trip. There were SO MANY smallish children as well as old men, possible sex workers, stands selling galletas magicas (yup, homemade edibles!). We wandered into the cathedral which was beautiful – and also hosting a mass so no photos were in the cards. (Side note: it’s amazing that although I haven’t been to a Catholic mass for decades – probably my wedding! – and it was being conducted in Spanish, I still knew exactly what was going on! )
Eventually it was time to find some food. I hate to say this but I’m tired of eating. Sacrilege, I know. But when we are at home, eating is easy: walk into the kitchen, find something appealing which will most likely be there because it’s your house and you buy the food. You don’t ever think about the fact that you likely eat very similar things in the same place most days. When you are travelling, it’s an entire PROCESS that doesn’t always make you happy. I’m not even getting into the issues involved with special diets because it will just make me weep openly. This is just the finding somewhere to eat, deciding what to eat, paying for what you ate, and then doing it all over again several times a day. And there is an underlying assumption that you don’t eat at the same place multiple times, as you would at home, because somehow that’s wasting an opportunity. {sigh}
It’s not that there isn’t a multitude of options here because there are. You can have empanadas from any store in any flavor in any size. There are fancy places, takeout places, Chinese food (so funny!), sushi, McDonalds, Little Caesers (!)…. the list goes on. But that is exactly the problem: too. many. choices. </soapbox>
We found a nice cafe/bar near one of the universities – of which there are SO many – and had a pretty simple lunch. Which we ordered entirely in Spanish. And that meant that Frank had no idea what kind of sandwich he was getting. (Turned out to be a kind of pulled pork which was delicious). We sat outside and tolerated the stupid smokers so we could watch the world go by. We were visited by one of Santiago’s many street dogs, watched people beg for food scraps from the table next to us, and then were serenaded by a misplaced Chilean lounge singer who really wanted us to like him. So interesting!
We headed back across the river to see if Barrio Bellavista was any different on Thursday than it was on Saturday. More aimless wandering through small sidestreets, peering in shop windows, and just taking in the scenery. And then…. we were done. It was like a bolt of lighting hit and we were no longer interested in just about anything. Especially walking around the city so we wanted to stop walking. But we had a good 2 miles to get back to the hotel. So walk we must.
I’m pretty sure we looked a bit like zombies as we trudged back east. Not much witty conversation, stumbling over the occasional tree root, desperate to find a gelato place that wasn’t creepy. Eventually we managed both the gelato – yummy! – and the trudge home. A cheap bottle of Chilean rosé was procured from the local shop and we crashed into the room. Of course I had work to do but Frank napped while I drank the rosé. And then it was time to do the eating thing all over again.
After a brief respite, we managed to hobble around the corner to the place we had lunch yesterday. We had the same camarera bonita who smiled and forgave our bad Spanish. A much more reasonably sized meal (with a full bottle of carmenere from the Maipo valley) was enjoyed. A little familiarity feels nice sometimes.
*I still have lots of work that needs to be done but it doesn’t involve a suit, powerpoint, or a microphone.
Data for today:
- Steps: 28,622 or 13.7 miles
- Hills climbed: 1 (Google says it was 12 floors but then Google said Porto was “mostly flat”)
- Glasses of sangria: 1
- Hours of work accomplished: 2
- Degree of exhaustion: 12/10
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