When we arrived in Santiago on Sept. 1st, I couldn't help but notice the sweet smell of smoke from wood burning fires. We smelled it again when we stepped off the plane in Temuco on Sunday the 2nd. This aroma of burning wood will no doubt be one of the strong memories I have of this country. While the capital has plenty of old stone buildings and cobble stone streets, many of the residences in Temuco (and I imagine in other smaller cities and towns throughout Chile) have wood burning heaters. We can smell the wood scent nightly and it is reminiscent of Taos in the winter.
Santiago is a fun city to arrive in. The airport is not too overwhelming and the drive into town is pleasant. The city was still stirring from sleep when we arrived. Many of the shops were closed and of the few that were open the owners were busy sweeping their storefront walks.
Since we knew we would be heading on to Temuco on the 2nd, we decided to stay in "el Centro" so as to get a sense of the historic downtown. One of the two highlights of this first Santiago stay was "el Mercado Central", an old central market erected in 1868 and one of the primary fish markets. The Mercado Central also houses an assortment of seafood restaurants within and we ate at Don Augusto, a place that seems to have more flash than substance. However, the setting alone was worth the high priced fare. The other highlight of Santiago was our meal on Saturday night in the hip neighborhood of Bellavista, a place that struck us as having a great resemblance to Palermo in Buenos Aires.
First impressions are always deceiving as the Bellavista neighborhood seemed subdued and quiet when we arrived close to 9 pm. So when we stepped into Étnico and saw half the tables empty but nonetheless were promptly dismissed for not having reservations, we knew this restaurant and the surrounding 3 block area had a late night life. The hostess relented after a few minutes offering two seats at the bar if we wanted them. We quickly opted that the reputation for this restaurant's pisco sours, people watching and sushi platters was worth the lowly status of the bar stools. To our chagrin, we began to suspect that the hostess was biased against foreigners as most of the others in our bar area were not Chileans! The food was great, the drinks were great and it ended up being a lovely way to celebrate our 1st Anniversary (the 2nd, for those of you who have forgotten, not that I did!).
Sunday brought a freshness as we slept off more of the jetlag. We decided to explore the garden terraces of Cerro Santa Lucía, the city’s public garden and central mount for skyline vistas. We scaled the stairs and snapped some shots of the city, which as you may know is in a valley. The flight into Santiago is stunning with all the views of the mountains but once you are in the city all you can typically see are faint outlines of the mountain ridges due to the thick smog. This reminded me of Kathmandu and how while the city is in a lovely valley, it is so filled with pollution that you have to leave the city in order to see the beauty of the surrounding mountains.
The flight to Temuco was smooth and easy, just about one hour. We ended up staying at the Hotel Turismo as many of the places in the guide books that sparkled with promise have seemingly gone out of business. While our taxi driver, Julio, showed us one of his friend's Hospedaje, a cross between a bed and breakfast and a hostel, we thought it to be too small for our needs. The Turismo ended up having the added bonus of free cable (and wi-fi!), so once we unpacked we knew we had made the right decision for the night.
Even though we snatched the room with a mildly good rate (could being the only guests for the night play a role?) our priorities Sunday evening quickly shifted to finding an apartment or a small house, as we had been homeless for close to 3 weeks moving from one friend’s or relative’s guest bedroom to another until our flight out. At dinner, we found some classified ads for rentals and jotted down numbers between games of the one of the women's US Open rounds. And we prayed for nice weather to assist us on our apartment search the following day, Monday.
We woke to drizzles that transitioned into showers in the afternoon and thunder storms in the evening. During our search, we saw a place way out in the middle of nowhere with the help of a realtor/property manager, we saw a small house with no insulation and hardly any light and a wood stove and poster pictures of Indian (South Asia) Indigenous peoples including 2 from Ladakh(!), dozens of run down houses for sale and a semi furnished apartment in a row of apartments owned by Jaime, which included utilities and hot water and trash and plates and silverware and glasses and beds and chairs (any ideas on where we live?)...
We were delighted with Jaime's apartment and told him we would call him the next day by 11 a.m., as we needed to think about it. We discussed the pros and cons on our walk home, in the rain showers, and within 45 minutes of being back at the hotel we called him to ask if we could move in, tomorrow. He said yes (Relief!). We went out that night to celebrate the end of our eating out and had a great bottle of wine, "Gato Negro", with our steaks. This wine label, from the San Pedro vineyard in central Chile, has worked its way into our home, and we have come to know and love it as though it were a long lost friend.
between the Spanish and the Mapuche.
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