Sorry I haven't written sooner. It's been a whirlwind 24 hours. Our flight left late as there was a mechanical issue with the emergency floor lights. We almost missed it as we went to a quieter area to wait as the gate was extremely busy and noisy. I guess the reason the area was quiet was because you couldn't hear announcements. Oops!
The flight was really good. I took a couple of melatonin pills to make me sleepy and managed an hour sleep right around take-off. I then woke up for a decent pasta dinner and watched "The Boat that Rocked" which was pretty good. Afterwards I fell back to sleep for four hours. Fantastic! What a difference some sleep makes. The flight seemed shorter than flying to Vancouver.
Our hotel, the Park Plaza, was really nice. Very personal service. In fact, everyone in Chile is extremely nice. The people are a mix of Spanish-looking and indigineous. Everyone has dark hair and dark eyes. Chile has about 16 million people, 30-40% of which live in Santiago. So with a population of aroind 5 million, Santiago is around the same size as the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).
After checking in to the hotel we took the metro (subway) to the old downtown. The metro, like the whole city really, is super clean. It was also fast, smooth, and cheap. There was a lot going on in the old city - tons of people everywhere, impromptu parades. There were some beautiful buildings, particularly the Cathedral Metropolitana in Plaza de Armas, the original town square. There are palm trees throughout the city so compared to our winters, or even this year's summer, the weather was fantastic. I wore only a t-shirt and jeans most of the day, occasionally slipping on a hoodie in the shade. We had lunch at an outdoor patio. Menus are only in Spanish but I recognize enough foods to get by. In fact I ended up being our little group's guide and translator, remembering more Spanish than I expected.
On our way back to the metro station we wound our way throught the Barrio Paris-Londres - cobblestone streets and more great buildings. On the other end of the metro we stopped at a gelateria for gelattos. Prices for everything are really good here although everything sounds expensive due to all of the zeros in the currency. For example my gellato was 1,000 pecos which is $2.22 Canadian.
Back at the hotel I had an hour nap and the got ready to go out. Then two other members of our ski group, Brenda and Greg, met Rory, Steve, and I for drinks at our hotel. Our hotel had given us each a coupon for a complimentary pisco sour. Yummy! Very similar to a lime margarita but with icing sugar and a raw egg white thrown into the mix. Does that qualify as an energy drink?
For dinner we walked six blocks to Bar Liguaria, a restaurant I had read about in my guide book. It was FANTASTIC! It had a really fun and vibrant atmosphere. The service was stellar. Food was tasty and really well-priced. With our bread they brought a home-made salsa and garlic butter. Delish! Everyone was very happy with my selection.
I got home early enough to get a good eight hours sleep. Nice to be starting a trip well rested! A buffet breakfast was included at the hotel. The fruit was incredible! Hard to believe it is winter here given the freshness and variety of fruit. There were two fruit I had never even seen before. One kiwi-coloured fruit looked like a cross between a dragon fruit and a kiwi. Another fruit's colour and flavour was a cross between a papaya and mango with the texture of a melon. Yum!
I'm now at the airport picking up the rest of the group. We are about to leave for the mountains. I didn't bother paying for wireless in Santiago but am hoping I'll get it at our next destination so I can post future write-ups and photos on my blog. Either way I'll write more soon!
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