Chile's Atacama Desert Day 2

Day 02 - Thursday, March 12, 2015 - Arrive in Santiago, Chile, Transfer to Hotel; Walking Tour of City; Welcome Dinner

We were able to get a few hours of sleep on our overnight flight from Dallas. The time difference was only two additional hours as Santiago is on Atlantic Time.

After a light breakfast of fruit and yogurt, we organized our belongings and prepared for our landing in Santiago, Chile. The local time was about 9:30 am. The flight crew had made up the 30 minutes we had to wait while they loaded late bags in Dallas.

When we went through the winding immigration lines, we saw hundreds of Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears along with Disneyland and California T-shirts on students returning to Santiago from their summer vacations.

Two OAT representatives met us after our bags were x-rayed along with all of our hand luggage. We met Mary from California and went together to visit the cash machine. The Chilean Peso is low and the U.S. Dollar is high so we all received a fist full of pesos. The exchange rate is 1 CLP = 0.00157 US cents.

We drove directly to the hotel, about 30 minutes from the airport and met Christian, our OAT Tour Director. He had warned us the rooms would not be ready so we stored our bags, picked up our cameras, and went for an orientation walk. Cheryl and Rick, also from California, joined us.

In just a few blocks of our neighborhood tour we found a shopping mall, a grocery store, and also a place for lunch. We ate at El Kika, a Bavarian hot dog café that we raved about from our previous trip to Santiago. We had their Italiano Completa; a hot dog smothered in tomatoes (red), avocado (green), and mayonnaise (white) – the colors of the Italian flag. Yummy!

We found our way back to the hotel and met with Christian and three others; Steve, and Ann Marie from Massachusetts, and Ginger from NYC. Together we will make up the pre-trip team going to the Atacama Desert.

Following the OAT tradition, Christian took us on a city tour of Santiago. He gave each of us a Metro Easy Pass, good for the city busses and the Metro Subway systems. From our hotel it is a 10-minute bus ride to the City Civic Center.

We walked around the fountains of the Government Palace, the office of Chile’s President, Michelle Bachelet. She was the first woman popularly elected president in South America.

As we stopped in the shade of a huge sycamore tree, to get out of the 94° heat, Christian told us the history of the second oldest democracy in the Americas. In 1973 the dictator Pinochet took over the country in a military coup. At that time, thousands of dissenters just disappeared and over 50,000 Chileans were tortured.

From the Civic Center we walked to the financial sector of the city, known as the Wall Street of Santiago, the street is named, New York. The finances of the country have depreciated 30% in the last year.

That is especially bad for pensioners whose annual benefits are based on the stock market, not an independent social security fund such as in the United States. While we were enjoying the views of these traditional banks and money houses, two young students came to us begging for money.

The university tradition is to cover freshman students with fish oil and vinegar, splash them with paint, and then take away their shoes. The young people must go out to beg for coins to buy back their shoes. This was a great place for their pleading as many of the adults in suits and ties remember their own days as new students.

Our next stop was just around the corner, at the Café Caribe, known affectionately as “Coffee with Legs”. There is a double meaning as there were no chairs, everyone stands at a bar to drink their coffee. Also the waitresses are all very tall, with exceptionally short skirts and long legs. While we were at the coffee café Gennie noticed that the five ladies in our group were the only female customers – wonder why?

After our coffee and a restroom stop, we walked to the Plaza de Armas, the site of the original settlement of Santiago in 1541. The City Hall and the Cathedral of Santa Iglesia, Virgin of Sorrows begun in 1748 enclose the square. Many plush apartment buildings and the main post office also are found on this square.

We took the Plaza de Armas subway line back to the hotel and checked into our room. We looked at our emails, took a shower, started the journal for the day, and went through the photos.

At 6:15 we met back at the lounge area for a meeting to go over the itinerary and have our pisco sour welcome drink. We walked just a few blocks to the Giratorio Restaurant, a revolving dining room that provides 360-degree views of the city.

It was 9:00 before we got back to our room. We finished the journal and then consolidated our bags so we could leave our rain gear in storage at the hotel. By the time we got to bed it was late. The day had been long but the room was cool so we could have a good night’s sleep before our adventure flying to the Atacama Desert tomorrow.

Accommodations: Hotel Torremayor- - - Meal: B & D

Wish we were there with you and able to share a pisco sour.

Love your new web sight. Always great to see and hear about the country.

Do have a seafood lunch at fish market. The best freshest scallops shrimp and Chilean sea bass.

Yes, we had the Italiano Completa and also visited the Café with Legs place - sounded like our first day in Santiago before we headed over to Easter Island! Enjoy!

How many cups of coffee did Vic have? LOL Those hotdogs looked yummy! Sleep well and we'll visit tomorro.

The hot dogs look luscious and the subway looks great; thanks for pictures of both.

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Day 13 - Saturday, April 22, 2022 - Depart for U.S.

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