After a good 10 hours of sleep, we finally felt like things were on the right track. Of course we are still missing half our belongings – mine – but we are trying to make the best of it. So we started the day with a lovely hot shower and a nice breakfast in the hotel. Well mostly a nice breakfast with whatever the teenage soccer team was kind enough to leave for the rest of us. If you’ve ever fed a teenager, you know what a whole group of them can consume. I think locusts eat less!
Nonetheless, fed and wearing clean clothes we headed out to see what Santiago had to offer us. The morning was misty and cool and we headed toward the touristy area because we knew that most things in Santiago are closed on Sunday. So off we went. But first we had a very important quest: to find deoderant! For reasons I can’t recall, Frank packed his deoderant in my errant case. So we had already gone a full day without any sweat-and-odor blockers. Going another day, even as freshly showered folks was just too painful. We covered an extensive amount of the city in search of an open shop that might have what we need. Not only were they few and far between but most of them didn’t have what we needed. (Interestingly they ALL had fabric softener. I wonder what’s up with laundry here?!)
Finally we stumbled upon a pharmacy that was open so we were able to procure the necessary Speed Stick (gotta compromise sometimes!) and then it was off to the Barrio Bellavista. It’s a lovely neighborhood with shops and restaurants – many of which were still closed – that is very fun to wander around. (Warning: Street art photos coming!). After a lot of window shoping and general meandering, we stopped at a restaurant in Patio Bellavista to get some drinks and use some wifi to plan the rest of our day. We decided to grab something to eat too. We should have stopped at drinks. The sangria and pisco sour were very nice. The food was mediocre. But refueling is necessary so we chalked this up as a lesson learned and headed out for more exploring.
So it was street art time! The Bellavista neighborhood is positively crawling with it so we are only posting a small sample but as new converts to this type of art, we thoroughly enjoyed the discoveries. Of course some parts of the neighborhood were challanging – not used to stepping over fresh human urine on a sidewalk on Sunday afternoon – but it’s all part of the experience!
Not content with just wandering at street level, it was time to go UP. To the Shrine of the Immaculate conception on the top of San Cristóbal Hill. It’s about 850 meters above sea level and about 300 meters above the rest of the city. Although climbing up such a hill would be right up my alley, we chose to take the funicular up and then walk down. The day had cleared and brilliant sunshine was the weather for the day. We got some amazing views of the city and the Andes from the top of the hill before our trek back down.
During the course of the day, I received a text and email saying that my luggage was on its way. Of course BA decided to send it to Madrid before sending it to Santiago so it wasn’t due to arrive until tomorrow. Now, this is the third message from the delivery company in two days with a different arrival time/date/route so I have ZERO faith that anything will arrive at any time soon. So guess what: British Airways is buying me some stuff! I only packed one spare outfit in my carry on because I’m apparently an optimist. But now we are in dangerous territory: I don’t have much in the way of clean clothing and in 2 days, I’m in business “time to take me seriously” mode. Nothing about a linen tunic, leggings, and sneakers says “I’m a data expert” so there better be some delivery happening soon!
But one step at a time. On our way back to the hotel from the top of San Cristóbal Hill, we had to pass the Costanera Centre which is a GINORMOUS MALL. Not being a huge fan of the favorite American pastime of shopping, I reluctantly entered the megamall. I was just impressed that it was open on Sunday and allowed me to acquire a change of clothing that was, quite frankly, desperately needed.
We found the shop that appeared by the layout and prices to be the Chilean JC Penny and headed to find something comfortable that I would actually wear again. I grabbed some grey leggings-that-look-like-trousers and a respectable if somewhat lightweight top and headed for the dressing room (probador). Here my inability to actually understand spoken Spanish became quite evident. Once at the front of the queue for a changing room, the very kind woman keeping things in order told me something that appeared to be important. Of course, I had no idea what it was so I tried to ask nicely what on earth she was saying. Eventually it came out that she was trying to tell me the rooms were all full (occupada) which I would have totally gotten if it was written down.
Then it was on to underwear and socks. Fine. Got those. Now we need to check out. (Necesito pagar). I follow the signs to the checkout only to find a bank of self scan computers. Weird but whatever. I try to use one and a woman appears behind the bank of computers and barks something completely incomprensible at me. So of course I run away like any respectable chastised tourist. After wandering around looking for another option to pay for my purchases and finding no obvious options, we head back and wonder if I had somehow made a different error. There was a customer at the counter who was clearly buying something so was it possible I jumped a queue? I tried again to stand patiently behind the gentleman who was in the middle of a transaction and the same woman barked EVEN LOUDER at me something I was never going to decipher and pointed across the shop.
So off I scurried wondering how I was going to manage this. There was a customer service type area with a kindly faced man behind the counter. I remembered enougth Spanish to ask where I should go (Necestito ayuda. Engles? Where do I pay? Donde pago?) and he pointed me to another stand where I was able to finally hand over my $70.000 CL (about £70) for my purchases so we could escape my shopping hell.
But not yet apparently because there was the most AMAZING grocery store in the megamall that cried out for exploring. I have never been in such a large shop in my life. They sold everything under the sun from clothing to cameras to cheese (the cheese counter was to die for!) so we picked up a few more things that we needed either because they were still in the errant case (hair gel) or because it was time for some fun (£5 bottle of Carmenere, GF cookies, and chocolate). So now it was time to head back to the hotel because, frankly, we were beat.
We took a little time to have a glass of wine and google where to eat. Yes the hotel restaurant was an option but no one goes to another continent to have a meal in the Intercontinetal. Unfortunately, Chilean culture seems to dictate that people eat at home on Sundays so most restaurants are closed. We did find one nearby that had the right combination of good wine, reasonable prices, and not a long walk. So off we went to Baco and what a lovely place it was. Technically French food but fantastic nonetheless. I had a filet with Bernaise and funky chips. Frank had beef bourguigon. And lovely deserts. Two glasses of wine each. And it was cheaper than the mediocre tourist lunch we had. Lesson learned. (Note: A Duolingo fail is that I had no idea how to order my steak. Medium isn’t a thing apparently so after much negotiating with the camerara who didn’t speak much English – but was trying – I guessed at something that turned out to be medium rare. Very acceptable!
Data for today:
- Number of steps: 30,598 (or 14.8 miles)
- Amount BA owes me so far: £75
- Number of time I had to aplogize in Spanish (¡Lo siento!):5
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