Passing through Santiago, Chile/Carlos Pueblo

Passing through Santiago, Chile/Carlos Pueblo

Early March, I received a promotional e-mail from a cruise line which I

have had some experience with, Norwegian. A deal was made both with

the cruise and airline, a flight from Houston to Santiago, Chile, then took

the cruise 15 days from Valparaiso, north of Santiago, southbound along

with Chilean Coast in the Pacific toward the Cape Horn and the Straight

of Magellan, then turned north toward the Argentina Coast in the Atlantic

to Buenos Aires, Argentina to complete the sea trip and I stayed additional

5 nights in Buenos Aires to wait for a cheaper airfare back to Houston, Texas.

The plane arrived at Santiago in the early morning while I started my first

task of the trip, to find an economic method to the hostel where I stayed over

night. I did find the bus to the downtown of Santiago where the inn located.

First problem was that I didn’t have Chilean Peso or a small change of U.S. $1.70

; therefore, I paid U.S.$20.00 to the bus driver and he gave me back $8,500 Peso

Back. His exchange rate was much lower than the official rate of 1:653 which was

a typical penalty for my unpreparedness.

Luckily a pair of Chilean seniors gave me a hand for the rest of the trip. They took

me to the first stop at a subway station, accompanied me to get on to a subway

underground and changed to another train at Santa Lucia station to Bellas Artes

station. They walked me up to the street level and pointed to the street of my hostel

then left. It was a very nice feeling toward a new and unfamiliar nation. I had had an

exactly encountering on Avenida Pasaje de Gracia, in Barcelona, Spain. There are

always some nice ladies and gentlemen all over the world coming to help some

strangled visitors.

I left my luggage at the hostel and went out for a quick look of the city. I was at

the downtown area closed to the Rio Mapocho, Barrio Bellas Artes and Barrio

Lastarria. I walked quite a while passing through some places of significance,

Teatro Municipal, Consulado de Argentina, Biblioteca Nacional, and finally

entered to the beautiful Cerro Santa Lucia Welen, Santa Lucia Welen Hill.

I could spend a whole day in this garden park spiral up to the top of a cathedral,

Capilla La Ermita. There are castle, Castillo Hidaligo, gardens like Jardin Circular

and Jardin Japonese etc., old canons left on site, and a very good site of ground

with again some old canons left from previous time of city defense and called

Portada Y Escudo Espanol which I did check with my Diccionnario Espanol-Japones

for the interesting meaning, some kind of open gate and shield of protection. I like

to go back to Santiago and spend more time with my dictionary.