Santiago

Santiago: On Sunday we had to leave Valparaiso for Santiago and hired a taxi van to take us there. Since the Foos had tons of luggage a normal taxi wouldn’t have cut it so a Mercedes Sprinter showed up at 1.30 and drove us the two and a half hours to Santiago. Along vineyards we went (now we can picture them when drinking Chilean wine at home), through dry desert like areas and up into the Andes mountains towards the capital of Chile. What a difference compared to Valparaiso! We found a big modern clean city that reminded the Foos of Singapore. Our driver had a few problems finding the Hotel Intercontinental (no GPS here) which provided us with a little sightseeing tour of Santiago and a first impression.
The (conference) hotel is huge and impressive with marble and mirrors everywhere and staff galore. Our room is a very luxurious corner suite with 2 big corner windows on the 7th floor, well-appointed with couch and coffee table, flat screen TV and a big desk with very fast wireless internet connection. Even the bathroom blew us away – huge and marble, is all I can say…
Our first Santiago dinner was taken last night just around the corner from the hotel in one of many super restaurants. We chose one that specialized in Chilean seafood (sea bass in particular), and we were not disappointed! Good food and wine, funny waiters who tried to teach us Spanish and a singer and guitar player whom we offended by sending him away – unsung so to speak…. A little funny anecdote that Frank found offensive, but we cracked up about: One waiter compared Sigi’s Spanish to Tarzan’s English ("Yo Tarzan, tu Jane")!!! Har, har, har!!! Differences of culture and humour…
Sigi is presenting his first paper right now while I am typing this. I will explore the pool on the roof of the hotel in a few minutes and then find the Foos to go for lunch. BTW, it is hot enough here to turn on the A/C in the room, 29 degrees today, phew! Hasta la proxima amigos!

Here I am again. Pool is great, water temp just right, fountains for water massages and a big enough “piscina” for length swimming. The Foos and I met up in the lobby to find the Sushi restaurant across the street from the hotel which we had already spotted the night before. Went there, saw no other guests, place was too hot, so we left. Walked the same route around the corner that we had taken last night in hot pursuit of the other Japanese restaurant we had seen. Walked and walked, didn’t find it, went back and forth, couldn’t understand it until Shirley had the brainwave to realize we were on the wrong street. Sure enough, we hadn’t realized that the ‘avenida’ had a fork in it, and we took the wrong prong. At long last we did find the restaurant and had a good meal. Not as good though as in Vancouver – we are very spoiled!!! We also made another observation – as with dinner people here eat lunch late, not much before two o’clock in the afternoon. That explained the gaping spaces in many of the restaurants we saw on our unintended excursion. Now we know better and behave like real Chilenos – lunch after two, dinner after eight…
The Foos had contacted a friend of their kids who lives and works in Santiago. She called back, and we all met for dinner that same night at the “Argentinian Beef House” just 2 blocks from the hotel on foot. Michelle is a young woman who works here as a volunteer for the UN, and knows her way around as well as Spanish fluently. She had no trouble ordering our food, wine and pisco sours and chatting with the waiters who on their part, liked a young good looking woman. She told us about the intricacies of Chile and their inhabitants, how to get around, what to avoid and so on. After dinner we all walked Michelle home to her apartment that was just a few blocks from the restaurant. As a reward she invited us to her flat that she shares with her landlady and another lodger. Very interesting for us to see. Cluttered common rooms, with lots of religious décor as well as self-made art work of many different designs and pictures on the walls, tiny kitchen overflowing with too many gadgets, chairs and other clutter and a small bedroom and bath that Michelle has to share with other mates. The rent is $400 a month though, and one can’t beat the location – 10 minutes on foot to work, and well connected to the city center by SUBTE (Subterraneo-Underground). We were happy to having been given a glimpse into a typical Chilean apartment. Michelle has to write an exam on Thursday morning, but will meet with us again in the afternoon for sightseeing and dinner. We are already looking forward to meeting again with this lively intelligent young woman.