Journey Impressions: Santiago

Santiago d. C.: Population approx. 6.5 million (2009)
Chile: Population approx. 17.7 million
Population growth (2010-2016): 1.1%
People per km²: 24
Gross national income per person in 2014: 14.900 USD


12 February 2018, Santiago:

Once we’d visited the workshop in the morning, we set off to get a ticket for a sightseeing bus and stopped at several places in Santiago. We got out of the bus on a hill that features the statue of the Virgin Mary and then took the cable car to get a view of the city. The cable car wasn’t working unfortunately, so we had to take a van. But we reached the top of the mountain and had a wonderful view of the city, although the view was much clearer and bluer on Sunday. But it was obvious that it was Monday and the heavy traffic, calm weather and high temperatures quickly produced smog. We looked at the statue of the Virgin Mary and inscription which said the immaculate conception. And the statue did portray a figure that was supposed to represent the immaculate conception. Each to his own...

On the way to the statue of the Virgin Mary, we caught sight of Santiago’s bull, an impressive work of art. Walking back to the hill where the statue of the Virgin Mary was, we somehow missed the bus stop so had to walk all the way down and back into the city. We worked up quite a sweat, but didn’t mind a bit of exercise and enjoyed a Chilean grappa in the hotel and the music by a couple of artists in the bar. They were very pleased that the guests from Alemania gave them a good tip.


13 February 2018, Santiago:

The morning started with breakfast in the wine room. An area in the breakfast room was partitioned off by a glass wall where you could see the treasures that the wine cellar had to offer. They were primarily Chilean wines, but there were also numerous varieties of champagne such as Veuve Cliquot and Moet. We didn’t drink those at breakfast but a cappuccino instead.

Afterwards, we’d arranged to meet a taxi driver who was to take us to Valparaiso, which would consume a whole day. The taxi driver asked us, somewhat surprised, what we wanted to do in Valparaiso. We told him that we wanted to visit the town and Kurt stressed that Valparaiso is supposed to be valley of paradise. The taxi driver didn’t say much in response. We enjoyed a very pretty drive through Chilean vineyards and arrived in Valparaiso, but what we found was nothing like a valley of paradise. In fact, quite the opposite, the down was pretty dilapidated. Many of the buildings were in a state of disrepair and you could see that investors had abandoned Valparaiso for Santiago.

As usual, there were several monuments to heroes, but in addition to the run-down buildings there was also a lot of graffiti in the town. In fact, you could say that the whole town served as a canvas for graffiti artists, making it look quite unattractive. Interestingly, Hapag Lloyd had invested in the town and placed a glass tower on top of an old historical building. This didn’t exactly make it look better. There was a strong police presence, but that might be because navy headquarters are located directly on the town’s market square. There was a currency exchange called New York near to the market square. I was delighted that I could change €200 there in order to pay the taxi driver in local currency. But my joy at being able to exchange money was short-lived. When I wanted to pay the taxi driver later, he looked at each banknote and discovered that some of them didn’t have a watermark. In other words, this was counterfeit money that the taxi driver couldn’t accept. I luckily had enough bank notes with a watermark and was able to pay him. A few unscrupulous people had obviously abused the trust of tourists and exchanged our €200 for just €100 legal tender and the rest as forged banknotes. That’s what happens when you’re caught unaware and ripped off.

This town gave off a slightly strange vibe anyway in that it didn’t inspire you to trust it. The restaurant selling fresh juices was also somewhat ambiguous. You weren’t really sure whether they were serving something to eat and drink, or other more physical pleasures. We decided not to try and find out and as this shop looked a little shady and Kurt decided he didn’t even want to order a cappuccino in this place because of that. He wanted to head off for the bright and shiny capital of Santiago again. And of course, it’s no fun having a cappuccino alone, so we set off for our beloved Santiago again. Once I’d paid the taxi driver, I took another look at the bank notes and it was true: half of them didn’t have a watermark. And then you’re powerless because you have no real proof that fraud had been committed.

We then savoured some lovely swordfish in a restaurant called Mestizo, which made us feel a little more positive after this unpleasant experience. We realised that the Mestizo didn’t just offer good food, but also had a hook on each table for handbags. Marie back in Hanover would of course be delighted if we had that at home in Lower Saxony. A summary of today’s experience: Valparaiso is on a downward spiral.

On 14 February the next day, we would be packing our things and leaving some of the stuff we won’t be taking to Germany in the workshop where Marie was parked. Furthermore, we wanted to look at Santiago de Chile’s football stadium where thousands of the military’s prisons were kept, tortured and murdered during Pinochet’s terrifying regime. This luckily happened a long time ago and it appears as if Chilean society has recovered and is one of South America’s modern and powerful economies today.

Bye!


14 February 2018, Santiago:

We had two things on our list today:

1. Take superfluous baggage to the workshop where Marie was parked and leave it there.
2. Visit Chile’s national football stadium in Santiago.

To our surprise, the taxi driver didn’t turn up, so we couldn’t head off as planned. We looked for another taxi and found one with a really nice taxi driver. He took us to the airfield where we left our baggage in Marie and of course wanted to say goodbye to her too.

Then we set off for the national football stadium. We wanted to try and take pictures of the stadium from the inside. In particular, we were interested in seeing whether the Chileans had documented traces of Pinochet’s military putsch in 1973 and the torture of opponents to the regime in the depths of the building. The taxi driver managed to get the gatekeeper and admin guy to let us through. So we were able to enter the inside of the stadium and take pictures. The most impressive sight was the memorial cage protesting against the Pinochet dictatorship. Its inscription literally said: “A people without a memory is a people without a future.” This area of the stadium isn’t used by spectators, but stays empty as an eternal monument to the cruel military dictatorship and the shameful role of US diplomats and military in Chile. We were impressed by this monument and our taxi driver thought it was right that it existed. We left the stadium impressed but not able to talk much and returned to the hotel.

We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant around the corner. A farewell photo with two red hearts completed our report from Santiago de Chile and we were really looking forward to Hanover.

Goodbye Santiago.