Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 SANTIAGO
Monday, 21 December (a.m.). The ship arrived in Valparaiso at 5:00 a.m.
We went to the Lido for breakfast at 7:00 when it opened. It was always
hectic trying to get breakfast there, but this was a madhouse. Not only were
the lines ridiculous, but at almost ever station there were no dishes, so
service just stopped. At the beverage lines, which were always much slower
when the waiters insisted on "helping" by pouring every beverage (when three
or four passengers could serve themselves at the same time if allowed to),
the lines were 20 to 30 people long. They would have been longer except that
at least half the people (including us) gave up and did without. The tables
were not bussed, so there was no place to sit if you did manage to get any
food. It's probably a good thing that all the tips (an automatic
$11/person/day) were finalized the evening before.
Our color was called to disembark at 8:15. We had signed up for the HAL transfer to the Sheraton Hotel in Santiago, with a tour of the city en route. Our bus, one of several doing this tour, left the port at 8:50. It was a beautiful sunny day in the 50s. To get to the expressway, we drove through the suburb of Via del Mar, then up a steep hill with a nice view back to the city. It was 75 miles to Santiago and it took about an hour and three-quarters, but it was a beautiful drive. The expressway took us through a national forest, then through some of the wine country with one vineyard after another. As we approached Santiago, we were impressed by the snow capped peaks of the Andes rising just behind the city.
We got to downtown Santiago about 10:30, passing the University of Chile
before stopping at the Plaza de la Moneda (Mint) to see the Presidential
Palace (1846) and the adjacent Palace of Justice. The Presidential Palace
was severely damaged in the 1973 coup d'etat when General Pinochet's troops
shelled and bombed the building, but it has since been restored. (It
was damaged again by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake on 27 February 2010, but
not as badly.)
About the first thing we noticed when we got off the bus was the temperature. While Valparaiso, with the moderating effect of the ocean, was having a high of 55 degrees today, Santiago was expecting 85. It was already about 80 and the sun was scorching. After more than a week in the colder regions to the south, this was a jolt. It was here that our group realized that we had a problem with our guide. He led us to the center of the square, and we took our pictures of the Palace. But he then kept us standing there in the hot sun for another 15 minutes while he discussed Chilean politics with one member of the group. Finally some of us just walked away, heading for the nearest shade. He followed and said a few words about the statue we had come to, then got into more political discussion. I told him softly to get the tour moving, and he did.
The bus next took us a few blocks to the Plaza de Armas, the main square, dating from the 1541 when the city was founded. Here again, without even telling us where we were, the guide launched into a political discussion. I interrupted him to ask where we were, and most of the group just walked away from him. Eventually he did his best to round us up again and finally started telling us about the various statues in the square and the buildings around it. The Plaza de Armas was filled with fountains, sculptures, and palm trees and surrounded by some of the city's most historical buildings. The oldest was the Metropolitan Cathedral (1745 but much rebuilt after earthquake damage). Three historical building of completely different architectural styles filled the north side of the square: the Correo Central (Central Post Office - 1882); the Palacio de la Real Audiencia (1804) housing the National Historical Museum; and the City Hall (1785).
We left the Plaza de Armas shortly after noon and continued our bus tour of Santiago. Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
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