STROLLING IN SANTIAGO, CHILE

CENTRAL MARKET



"MERCADO CENTRAL - The wrought iron building was fabricated in England and served as a London railway station before being brought to Chile and assembled here piece by piece for the National Exposition of 1872. Later, it became a market"



"HERBS, FRUITS AND VEGETABLES"



"FISH"


"FOOD STALL near the statue"


"RESTAURANT - Just seated"


"PISCO SOUR, as an aperitif"


"HUNGRY, waiting"


"KING CRAB"


"FINALLY, someone is going to start eating..."

***

SAN CRISTOBAL


"CERRO SAN CRISTOBAL, a hill close to Barrio Bellavista, rises roughly 900m above sea level and its peak is the highest point in the city, some 300m above the rest of Santiago. From the peak, near the church and the statue of Virgin Mary, one has a fabulous view of the city"

***

MERCED



"MERCED BASILICA"


"LAWYERS AND WITCHES"

***

CERRO SANTA LUCIA






"SANTA LUCIA was so named when on February 12th, 1541, at the foot of the hill, Pedro de Valdivia founded the city of Santiago. In 1872, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna decided to make the hill a new attraction of the European style city. The Alameda entrance was designed by the Architect Victor de Villeneuve and finished in 1902, and on 16 December 1983 Cerro Santa Lucia was declared a national monument"

Next evening we flew back to Madrid and then Lisbon, and that was the end of the 2004 vacation!

BACK TO SANTIAGO, CHILE!

RETURNING HOME - SEPTEMBER 2004

Santiago, Chile is a very nice town, as I've already mentioned on the first post of the 2004 holidays. However, when coming back home, my mood is always somewhat more depressing than while going out...


"EARLY MORNING CHECK-IN - The Intercontinental Hotel is a quite nice hotel (no publicity needed) at Las Condes"


"LA MONEDA, a neo-classical building from Joaquin Toesca and Agustin Cavallero, which is the Seat of Chilean Government since 1922, and the Presidential Palace. Here we have a view from Constitution Square"


"SALVADOR ALLENDE GOSSENS (1908-1973) was the first socialist president of Chile. Born in an upper middle class family, he became involved in politics at the University. After completing his medical studies, he was elected to the Congress, served as minister of health, and became leader of the Socialist Party in 1942. In 1970, Allende won the presidency, and started what he named the «Chilean Road» to socialism. However, Allende had many internal and foreign opponents, and on September 11, 1973, he was overthrown in a violent military coup led by Pinochet. At the end of the day, Allende was found dead, and many assert that he was assassinated by the invading soldiers of the La Moneda Palace. Once democracy was re-established, he got his statue in front of La Moneda"





"ART EXHIBITION at La Moneda. Today, one can access the Palace from the Constitution Square, and see its interior gardens, as well as some permanent or temporary exhibitions of contemporary sculpture"


"AHUMADA STREET is an attractive pedestrian walkway in the heart of downtown Santiago that leads into the Plaza de Armas. Some nice buildings, shopping passages, and coffee shops help to create an interesting environment"


"MUSICIANS - The atmosphere of Ahumada Street changes radically on weekends, when office workers give way to street performers"


"PUENTE STREET - Another quite interesting pedestrian street, on the other side of Plaza the Armas"


"THE (FORMER) NATIONAL CONGRESS HOUSE was completed in 1876. Congress met in this building until Allende was overthrown by the September 11, 2003, military coup, when it was moved to Valparaíso. The building was declared a national monument in 1976 and housed the ministry of foreign affairs between 1990 and 2006. On January 26, 2006 the Chamber of Deputies recovered its old offices"


"PLAZA D'ARMAS WEEK-END MARKET - Anything to sell or buy"



"CATHEDRAL - The building - the fifth on the site, since the previous four were destroyed either by the Mapuche (the first) or by earthquakes and fires - was built between 1748 and 1775. Joaquin Toesca intervened in its restoration giving architectural unity to the Cathedral, blending both classical and baroque characteristics"


"MONUMENT TO THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE - The Plaza de Armas was designed by Pedro de Valdivia, and it is considered the heart of the city with the Cathedral, the Royal Court, the Central Post Office and this unique sculpture celebrating Chile's Indian cultures and peoples"




"YOUNG ARTISTS - Starting the festivities of the National Day. Actually, Chile got its Independence on September 18, 1810, and every year Chileans celebrate their national day from September 17 until September 19"


"CHILEAN PRIDE - On September 17th, 2004, the National Day was approaching"

IT'S NOT RAINING IN SANTIAGO

DISCOVERY DEPARTURE - AUGUST 2004

In 2004, I managed to take some days off to travel once again to South Pacific. It was a fantastic vacation with Guida, Luísa, Jean-Pierre and Antonio. Photos in the next posts were mostly taken by Luísa and Antonio, while I was working with the video camera. Anyhow, I also took some of them...

***

Santiago is Chile's capital and was founded by Pedro de Valdivia on February 12, 1541. It has more than 5.5 million inhabitants, and is located in Chile's central valley, at an altitude of 520 meters, with the Andes on its east side. We were lucky enough not to be caught by the smog, but as soon as we arrived, and were on the process of installing ourselves at the Intercontinental in Las Condes, a small earthquake greeted us. Like Guida made it to the butler at the Club floor, «we understood the enthusiasm caused by our arrival, but there was no need to show such an excitement! »
Santiago is a very nice town, and at the present time much more decent...


"TELEFONICA - Before lunch we took the modern an convenient Metro train to get to La Chascona. We started at Tobalaba station and left at Baquedano, I think, where we saw the Tower. This interesting 140 meter high mobile phone building at Plaza Italia, by the Mapocho River, belongs to the Spanish telecommunications company"



"LA CHASCONA is the house that Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda (Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto) had built for his third wife, Matilde Urrutia, named la Chascona due to her messy hair...
When I was in Santiago for the first time in 2001 I visited the three houses of Pablo Neruda - La Chascona in Santiago, Isla Negra and La Sebastiana in Valparaiso. When I came back in 2004, La Chascona had undergone renovation for Neruda's 2004 centenary. The house is built like a ship, with a living room that looks like a lighthouse and other rooms built in a way that makes you feel as if you were at sea"


"PARRILLADA - After La Chascona we were a little late for lunch. Fortunately, just around the corner, at Pio Nono Street in the lively Bellavista quarter, there was Don Simón a cheap and nice restaurant where we had a parrillada..."


"FUNICULAR - After lunch we took the Cerro San Cristobal funicular to get views of Santiago and the Andes"


"CERRO SAN CRISTOBAL - A fifteen meter high statue of Virgin Mary crowns the hill (which is a part of the Parque Metropolitano - a municipal park considered the lung of Santiago) and can be seen from almost everywhere. We went up with the funicular and at the top someone took us a photo"


"PROVIDENCIA - The summit of the Cerro is 860 meters above sea level, which means almost 300 meters above the rest of the city. It is the best place to have a look at Santiago. Providencia is a business district at the bottom of the Cerro, on both sides of the Mapocho"



"ANDES - The view towards the beautiful snowy Andean peaks was magnificent!"


"HORSE RIDDING - After a spectacular cable car trip from the Cerro, we had a rest at the starting point in Providencia"



"PEDRO DE VALDIVIA is a nice Boulevard with some very interesting houses..."


"VITACURA - An avenue towards a nice residential area"


"SUNDAY ANTIQUE FAIR at Plaza Peru in Las Condes district"




"LAS CONDES is a modern and interesting district located in the north-eastern part of Santiago, at the foot of the Andes Mountains. The area (99.4 square km) seems to be inhabited primarily by upper-mid to high income families (with an average household income of almost 100,000 US dollars, according to the 2002 census)"