The capitol of Chile and possibly the easiest city I’ve come across to simply walk around. Everything is in walking distance, however that may not be saying too much as there really isn’t a lot to see and do in Santiago. It’s certainly a nice city,
in a very westernised way, but there’s not much particularly distinctive about Santiago. I may even go as far as to say it’s kinda boring here, however Santiago is known for its conservative nature and you do get a sense of that.

Regardless, I ended up staying for 10 days. I certainly wasn’t intending to, but the suburb I was staying in, Barro Brasil, was just a lovely place I found hard to drag
myself away from. And admittedly, I had the second half of Game of Thrones to
watch and the new seasons of True Blood and Futurama had started back up, so I
may have spent three of those days watching TV shows when the weather wasn’t at its best.

The first striking thing about Santiago is how expensive it was. Sure the capitols are always more expensive, but Santiago really amps up the prices. The hostal I was staying at was fantastic, but for a private room and shared bathroom for 22,000 peso it’s a little too much. The strangest part was the  shared bathrooms and the fact the showers didn’t have doors, just a shower curtain. It was the first time I’d encountered a shared bathroom that was literally shared with 3 showers and toilets. On the first night of staying here I walked into the bathroom to find a naked women drying herself off. Quickly closing the door and apologies I made a mental note not to get out from behind the shower curtain nude incase someone did the same to me. Luckily I was soon to be the only person staying on this floor so I had the place to myself. One of the few benefits of visiting in winter!

The food in Santiago was just the start of discovering decent food in Chile. While pork continued to be a favourite option, Chileans have two dishes that probably
define the Chilean palette. The first is Chorrillana, a version of the popular street
food Salchipapa. Instead of just chips and chorizos they also pile on onions and
steak. I had no idea what this was when I first ordered it and my eyeballs almost exploded when the plate came out with some of the most heart stopping mound of grease I’d ever seen.

The second and most popular food in Chile is the hot dog, called a Completo. Again they’ve taken a humble street food and topped it with more food in an attempt to call it an actual meal. It’s quite odd to see in a restaurant people being served hot dogs, and even stranger is they come out with their own little hot dog
stand, as if it legitimise the fact they’re eating hot dogs in a restaurant.  

The Lonely Planet had an Indian restaurant listed as a recommendation. I was salivating at the thought of having an authentic Indian curry and after walking past the restaurant one day and breathing in the delicious wafting of spices filling the air, I had to go in and check it out. I had read earlier that the place was
expensive and that there is a total of 3 Indian restaurants now in Santiago. I’m
happy that residents of Santiago have discovered Indian food, but I hope the
other places are cheaper. The food was awesome, a lamb Rogan Josh that would
have to be one of the best I’ve ever tasted. I tried not to look too piggish as
I inhaled the Rogan Josh, as the place was packed and had a bit of an upper
class vibe going. And at 16,000 pesos for the curry, a nan, rice and a beer, it’s
the most expensive meal I’ve had out of this entire trip.

Possibly the oddest meal I had here was when I had a hankering for salmon. With Chile being such a skinny country, the Pacific Ocean isn’t all that far from anywhere, so seafood isn’t too expensive and salmon appeared on many menus. When I asked for a grilled salmon the waiter recommended a different salmon dish; I shrugged and obliged to his recommendation. What came out was a surprise – smoked salmon bathed ceviche style in lime juice, but topped with grated cheese. I stared at the grated cheese trying to reconcile in my mind why someone would want to do to smoked salmon, but after one mouthful I was converted. It was bloody awesome.

Beer prices are all over the place in Santiago. Not really all that surprising that you pay double the price for a beer in a restaurant than you would in the bar around the corner. With the German and strong European influences in Chile I saw many
people drinking Heineken. Many tables would have a litre bottle shared amongst
themselves and it wasn’t until I saw that Heineken was the same price as the
local beer than I got curious and had to order a bottle for myself. After one
sip I had to look at the back of the bottle to see where it was made – it didn’t
taste anything like Heineken, and the label confirmed it was made in Chile under
the supervision of Heineken in Amsterdam. All I could imagine is a group of
stoned Dutch guys sampling the Chilean version; “Yeah dude it tastes totally
rad. Hey can someone past the blunt.”

There was one museum that I really wanted to visit in Santiago, and after walking past it a couple of times I had to confirm I had the right address. Sadly it was
covered in scaffolding and renovation work was being done. After scoping out
the any other possible entrances I found what I thought was an underground entry leading to the museum, which instead lead me to a sex shop. Backing out I
nodded to the security guard outside, who knowingly nodded back at me, and
quickly made my exit to find the National Art Museum for a culture fix – I’m
sure you could argue a sex shop is also a bit of a culture fix too.

One little bit of Americanism has crept into Santiago, and that’s adding a tip to your bill. It didn’t happen very often and I actually thought it was a tax at first.
It wasn’t until later on in Pucon that I was told it was a gratuity and not an after the fact tax. This made me even more annoyed, as I had been leaving a tip on top of this! The worst time this happened was when my favourite café was filled up and I went to the one next door for my morning cappuccino. For a coffee that was barely three mouthfuls I ended paying $5AUD, but I did at least get a laugh at their menu that listed a Café Americano with the description “Americans
Go Home”. Nice.

On my last night I wound up at the local bar and a group of rowdy locals rocked up. Soon enough I was chatting to Nicoli, a bartender at a nearby bar who had distinctive green mutton chops. He actually reminded me of a punk version of Wolverine. I got a lesson in the bizarre Chilean Spanish and what they pronounce differently, and now I’ve been trying to find a situation where I can use sipo – which basically means well, yes, and everyone says it. I’m trying to fit in, you see.

On day ten I said my goodbyes to the awesome staff at the hostal and arrived at the bus terminal. I was pleasantly surprised that this was the first time that there
was some level of organisation and the ticket even had what numbered station
the bus was leaving from. Soon I was off heading south into Middle Chile towards Talca, which I started to get a little concerned about visiting when the girl next to me asked why would I want to visit Talca. I was a good question I didn’t have the answer to, and upon arriving I had to ask myself the same question too.