We spent 24 hours in Santiago on the last leg of our South American Journey. It really isn’t fair to assess a place when you only have 24 hours to take it all in; we felt a little bit like Chevy Chase as Chuck Griswold in the Vacation movies staring at each sight for a few seconds and going on to the next. As those of you who travel a lot know that by the end of a trip, you can hit tourist burn-out where you just can’t appreciate or retain any more facts about another church or historic building. I feel like we need to go back to Santiago to really experience the different neighborhoods we saw but here are our brief impressions of the city.
Santiago is a friendly, modern, and extremely clean city. The workers clean the city twice a day and you will not see a piece of trash or litter on the ground anywhere. We took a walk around our hotel and saw very quaint homes and condominium complexes that were extremely well cared for. Santiago also has a very American feel to it. On our walk we passed at least four Starbucks and every single American food chain that you can name. According to our guide, Chileans feel that Applebee’s or Ruby Tuesday is an example of Fine American Dining and is a place that they would take their wife for an anniversary dinner or special occasion. (I quickly let Brad know that he couldn’t get away with that for our anniversary back here in the States!)
The highlight of our visit to Santiago was dining one last time at lunch with our group at Aqui esta Coco. It is considered the best seafood restaurant in Santiago and it did not disappoint. We were served a wide variety of seafood and fish dishes followed by a cake named Grandmother’s 1000 Layer Dulce de Leche cake. Yum! The lunch started out with each of us being served a Pisco Sour; a Chilean drink made with a Pisco liquor, lime, and egg whites. It went down a little too easy for some of us! We were also served three different types of wine that never seemed to be empty in our glasses! (You might also be getting a hint of why our memory of some of the details of Santiago sites are a little hazy!)
Seafood Extravaganza at Aqui Esta Coco
Our last meal with the group
After our three hour lunch, we hit the city for a tour visiting the Plaza de Armas, the Presidential Palace, and the Bohemian Section of the city. We ended our tour with a trip up San Cristobal Hill to see the Shrine of the Virgin Mary and views of the city.
Palacio de la Moneda: the Presidential Palace
Pedestrian Mall
It’s an election year. Can you tell?
Men playing chess in Plaza de Armas
The Former National Congress Building
The Shrine of the Virgin Mary
City View of Santiago
Lisa and Brad's Travels 
Hmm…maybe an anniversary trip back to Santiago with reservations at Ruby Tuesdays..oops I mean, Aqui esta Coco! Glad the city is so well maintained and clean. Sounds like it could be a repeat! I hope the Virgin Mary is praying for our Congress & President right now with this big mess back here! Safe travels back to Danville!
Twenty-four hours certainly is a sliver of time to see a city of over six million people! Everyone must have been exhausted after so much travel. But I’m glad you got a chance to experience some real fine dining–and not Ruby Tuesdays.
It was surprising to me that you found the city to be so clean, considering the first thing I noticed was the amount of dogs everywhere… but, then again, it depends where you go in the city. There is a lot of constant cleaning in many public places!
And I’m glad you ended your trip the right way–with mil hojas cake and pisco sours!