SANTIAGO - Fluffy Hats for Hot Days

Naysayers of the world, you dissapoint me. After all the reports that Santiago was a bit boring, and a fourteen hour bus/flight travelathon (note to the wise: exit lane seats may give extra leg room, but they shaft you on the reclining seat thing. When you actually want to lie back, this is a problem) which could have spelt disaster to first, second and, indeed, even third impressions: Santaigo turned out to be pretty darn gorgeous. And, indeed, empty for the first two days. With the usual South American habits of early Saturday closing and then an election to suck closed all local attractions the day after, Sarah and I were beginning to feel we`d walked into a ghost town. Thankfully, normailty returned on Monday and, well trained from Rio experiences, we headed for the nearest hill.


Flower stall on the empty streets of Santiago. Sundays plus a general election make this area a haven for the lesser spotted tourist. Approach with caution.

Somebody decided that it would be a good idea to plonk the place in a valley surrounded by mountains, with the very impressive spine of the Andes marking one of the sides. Not a bad idea until someone else decided to invent smog and, thus, ruin plenty of decent views. So, as if to make up for the inevitable dissapointment, they then built a large statue of Mary on top of the biggest hill to give the place a sort of `Rio Junior` feeling. My quite unitentional tour of religious iconography of the world continues: and in many ways Mary is more impressive than Jesus. She`s more expressive, and has much more parkland to stand in. As such, she`s not the iconic landmark her more illustious son is, but she`s probably the better day out. Also, she has great hat salesmen nearby.


Jess and Sarah demonstrate the local fashion of choice whilst sitting near Mary. In the blazing sun.

Brazil is still thick in the middle of baseball hat culture. Chile is much less trendy and surfy and so the tourist items of choice are cute woolen hats. We assume these will be slightly more use in the south of the country and in the Andes with, you know, cold and snow. But they do make for quality sweat holders... Santiago has a big business culture going on which I haven`t really seen since leaving Sao Paulo. But its urban sprawl has been kept in much greater check, maybe as a result of being stuck between loads of mountains. It`s a more affluant city than many in South America, despite having a wonderfully crazy currency (10000 peso notes are the norm), although I suspect that`s not typical Chile.

It makes for a much more relaxing type of visit than, say, Rio. Except without a big long list of things to go and do and see the ideas are already looking a little thin. "Go up big hill" was pretty much the extent of them. Sarah leaves on Thursday for a week bussing around the Lake District (no, not that one) which sounds awesome but I`ll be in New Zealand before she gets back. So, instead, I`m proposing to myself a week of furious relaxation.


My nemesis returns. Cable cars. This time, tiny ones with not-quite-secure-looking doors. But I got to sit down and actually enjoyed the mountain views so, ha! Take that, cable cars!... Oh, and here`s some typical Santiago. Mountains hidden behind smog.

Not to be outdone on the dissapearing into the wilderness front, Lucy, Jess and I will take to the hills tomorrow for a bit of short trekking and some close up and personal time with the highest peak in South America (which one is that, trivia fans? Bonus extra no points for the correct answer) and maybe some chinese takeaway from the quite marvellous little place we found a few streets away from our hostel. And, I`m sorry, but any town which can provide me with my chicken and mushroom fix doesn`t get criticised.


Seriously, who wouldn`t want to be seen in a hat like this?