We’re not in Kansas, I mean Argentina, anymore

Saturday, November 25, 2023
Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile
Talk about a contrast!  Coming from Mendoza to Santiago de Chile is like night and day.  Not only is Santiago a bustling high-rise city, with all kinds of interesting old architecture scattered around, compared to the very low-rise Mendoza, which had no old buildings, but the price of everything seems to be about triple what it was in Argentina and about on a par with costs in Toronto!  The one hour flight over the Andes deposited us in a different world.  We are staying in a funky little ground floor apartment in Lastarria, a trendy neighbourhood for bars and restaurants, not far from the Plaza de Armas, the centre of Chile.  The funkiest thing about the apartment is that the bed is up to my waist (with drawers underneath) and has step-stools on each side to get in and out!  (Fortunately the apartment does not cost triple what we were paying in Argentina—only about 50% more.)
When we got to the apartment at about 3 pm, we headed out to find an ATM (no more changing money on street corners!) and grab some late lunch.  It took a bit of doing to find the ATM, but lunch was easy—we shared a pizza at one of the many places right around the corner from our place.  Then, finding a grocery store was a bit of a challenge, but we finally found the store that it seemed everyone in Santiago was going to after work on a Friday afternoon—it was a zoo!  Friday night was a quiet night in for us.  We weren’t hungry enough for dinner after our late lunch, but we did pop out for an ice cream at one of the many “heladerias” near us.  The neighbourhood was really hopping on a Friday night.
Saturday was a day for a little exploring of the Centro district.  We got up fairly early and headed over to Plaza de Armas and beat the crowds that would pack the square later in the day.  As I mentioned, there were tons of interesting buildings in and around Plaza de Armas:  The Metropolitan Cathedral, The Museum of Natural History, The Palace of Congress, The Supreme Court and many others.  We ended up wandering off down one of the pedestrian malls that branch out from the Plaza and ended up down at the Mercado Central, a very impressive seafood market.  It was so impressive that, after a bit more wandering and a stop for drinks in the Plaza, we decided to head back there to one of its many seafood restaurants for lunch.  There was not a lot of seafood in Argentina and it was very expensive, so we were looking forward to enjoying some in Chile.  I had a very good seafood soup and Carol had a seafood pasta.
Later in the day we headed up the Cerro Santo Lucia, a big hill and park with a great lookout at the top, which is located half a block from our apartment.  It was at one time a volcano and played major a role in the conquest of the area by Pedro de Valdivia, due to its central strategic location.  There are some great views and some really interesting structures, including Hidalgo Castle and the impressive Fountain of Neptune, which we found just as we were leaving the park (not to be confused with the fountain statue of Neptune and Amphitrite at the other end of the park, where we went in).
Dinner was again at one of the little places just around the corner and we each had a different gnocchi, and once again, we were a bit too ambitious and had to bring half of each dish home. 
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