During the driving we spoke to our driver about Chile and he generally gave us an optimistic reply about economics. He became a little more sensitive when I asked about the Pinochet era, but he remembered the black markets well, from the day, and claimed to have found his wife on such a black market! 'Bery expensive' (they have difficulty pronouncing V) he said; we advised him that wives were no cheaper elsewhere! :)
I also asked him about racism, or minorities that may be disliked in Chile. He replied that they do not have many black people, and have no problem with their presence, 'it's the Spanish we do not like!'. Mmm, we have heard this before.
Along the way we also observed a lot of graffiti, often on historic buildings which deserved more respect in our opinion. It is a worldwide problem, but sad to see, especially on certain structures. Next we passed a street demonstration, at the Plaza de Armas (most cities, town and villages seem to have one of these, plus several Catholic churches), by workers demanding more pay; 'just like NZ' we told him.
First stop, we went up to the top of the highest hill in the city, Cerro San Cristobal, where we were told that Pope John Paul II had once held a service for locals. Our driver told us there was virgin at the top of the hill, but he planned to stay in the car.
There is a Virgin Mary at the peak of this 'hill for tourists', which, with great care I note that Ron agreed to 'approach' her, so I could capture a photo (all for the purpose of good holiday records, of course).
With the virgin hunt over, and the rain still falling, we dashed back to the car, observing how slippery the rocks become with a little rain. We wondered how slow our descent may have been on the Inca Trail if we had encountered any rain.
Next on our list, before the driver ditched us, was a wine tasting visit to Concha y Toro, a vineyard that is clearly one of Chile's larger wine makers. We got to taste two wines and visit the cellar (Casillero del Diablo - named after the devil to scare away wine thieves it seems to us).
It was interesting, and the wine was nice, but the tour was a wee bit like a message and process delivered by recording and we only got our guide off the subject a couple of times as we tried to make it more personal. It seemed that he was on a '15 minute' precise schedule to me, but he got the job done.
We didn't want to carry any wine home, or our gift glasses, so we may take a look in local wine stores when we get home.
Our driver then dropped us back to the Mercado Central de Santiago (the market) which has many eating spots around what looks to be mostly a fish market. The lunch we had was excellent, although it is the first time either of us had spent in excess of $28,000 (Pesos) on a meal.
After lunch, we put on our experienced underground users hats and took on the Metro to be back to our hotel, reasoning that it would be both cheaper and faster than using a taxi (the traffic is dense and mostly operates in a confused state, a little like the rest of central and southern America.
Our 'Espanol for being polite' was insufficient to convince the lady behind the ticket window to sell us a ticket. So a quick trip to the service office yielded help. Habla Ingles por favour? Everyone pointed at the girl in the corner. She kindly helped us back at the ticket office, and away we went. The Santiago metro is almost exactly the same as others around the world, save two aspects: the ticket machine had no English or image based process and the Metro runs on tyres, not rails.
We are back at the hotel now, may yet go out for a meal, but then seek more sleep before visiting Valparaiso tomorrow, then catching a late flight out, bound for home.
We may not encounter wifi again tomorrow as we return directly from the coast to the airport. Maybe at the lounge? We will see.
If not, we hope you are all warm, and well. Look forward to seeing you soon.
R&M
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