Chile vol 2: Santiago

We traveled to Santiago with Ria on a Thursday evening, finally a bus that took less than 2 hours instead of 7 to 22 that we are used to. What a luxury.

Ria went to her hostel and we took a subway to our friends place. As Ria was traveling south the next day we met up for dinner later the same night. Yes, dinners starting around 11 pm are totally casual in South-America. Headed to Bellavista patio which is a lovely complex of restaurants and bars. 

Headed home around 1 am and who goes to bed that early on a Thursday night, celebrated our first night in Santiago with a bottle of gorgeous red wine. 

Before Chile we expected Santiago to be another big city, so thought about stopping by for just a couple days, when actually in Santiago we were prepared to stay for four days, in the end stayed for eight. The vibe of the city was somehow so right and although we chilled most of the days and weren't too productive, there was always so much to do and places to go.  

Cerro Santa Lucia

Found an Estonian movie screening

And the wine..  Chilean wines are pretty amazing. Went to Concha y Toro vineyard on Saturday, it's about a 40 minute car ride away from Santiago central. Concha y Toro is the largest producer of wines from Latin-America since 1883. It produces Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Cabernet Savignion, Merlot and Carmenere. In 2014 they bottled 226 million liters of wine and delivered to 145 countries. The tour was interesting and the wine and cheese tasting with the sommelier in the end is extra special. Make sure you take the Tour Marques de Casa Concha not just the traditional one, as this is the one you get the extra wine with the sommelier.

We may have tried a bit too many wines during one week but hey we do not get most of them back home and great wine is something I cannot resist. 

As we couldn't visit most of the museums because of the strike, we only went to one: Museum of Memory and Human Rights which was gruesome but very interesting and definitely worth the visit. Other than that walked around in downtown, visited many many parks, climbed some hills, even did some shopping for the first time on this trip and ate so much delicious food. 

El Completo! I'm gonna miss having great, ripe, cheap avocados all the time!!

Terremoto! A typical Chilean drink of pipeña (sweet wine) and pineapple ice-cream.

The biggest sandwich I have ever eaten! So much goodies inside. The restaurant is cool itself - Fuente Mardoqueo. 

Watching election at an Irish bar witg the boys and teaching each other slangs of each other's languages to keep the mood up!

And our favorite club was definitely Mito Urbano. Such good latin music.

Also cooked at home many evenings, even did our famous cookie cake as it was Stefano's birthday a week after we left. 

For fresh and reasonably priced seafood the best place to go is Mercado Central. The food is good, fruit market is nice and cheap and the area is lovely but keep an extra eye on your belongings. Somehow my wallet got stolen from my purse. I suspect a guy who tried to give us chocolate candy in the middle of the street. The thieves usually work in teams so the moment of our confusion might have been a good one for them to act. Then again the fact is pickpockets are skilled and quick so it might as well happened at any moment. 

The drivers in Santiago seemed unusually calm and well-mannered (maybe because we came from countries where the main objective of the drivers seemed to be to kill the pedestrian) but it did come as a surprise when cars stopped to let us across even without us desperately trying to step on the road. (This is not a case any more in Mendoza, Argentina. Here we have to run for dear life again!)