One of the many coloured houses in Santiago
The flight from Easter Island to Santiago over Chile was only really notable for how dark it was on the ground. There were no signs of street lights or villages of any sort until we were only a few minutes from Santiago.
I’m on my fourth and by far the best hotel I’ve visited in Santiago. Nippon Hotel is completely hidden away to the extent that the majority of taxi drivers hadn’t even heard of the street but it seems to have just gone through a renovation as everything works, the rooms are quiet an comfortable and the Internet and cable TV seem fast and modern.
It’s situated about a 5 minute walk from the Bellavista neighbourhood, home to the cities artists. Instead of the usual jugglers at zebra crossings this one had tumblers and acrobats, which was very impressive, except they seemed to be enjoying themselves too much to collect money before the cars pulled away.
In the middle of Bellavista is clothes shop called “Say No More!” I would like to know if it’s named after the Monty Python sketch. I had been planning to visit the home of the Nobel Prize winning poet Naruda, but got outside and watched the sort of people going in and out and just couldn’t follow them – too many berets and goatees.
The next day I walked in a roundabout way from the hotel to the centre of town. On the way I did notice the peculiar habit of bunching together of identical shops: ten opticians, twelve shoe shops, even three huge supermarkets in a row.
The other (uniquely?) Santiago phenomenon is legs bars, where bored looking ladies in very short dresses serve coffee to old men.
There is more to do in Santiago, like climb the hills and visit wineries, but having just come from Argentina none of it really appealed, and all seemed a bit of an anticlimax after Easter Island.
