Day 25 -
Traipsing around the Great City
From my first visit to Santiago in 2018 I had it pegged as my favorite city in South America. As I would learn in my trips in 2024 and 2025, this initial thought continued to hold true - but the weirdest part of so much of what I did on those two trpis were things I didn't do in 2018 when I first held this opinion. For whatever reason, the modernity, the brilliance of its neighborhoods, the great vibes, all of it coalesced in that little 48 hour run to make me think of it so highly, and nothing has happened since to change that opinion. After today, still nothing has changed other than maybe my parents joining in on that opinion.
They let these two days in Santiago (today, and tomorrow, the last official day of the trip) be fully in my hands as their Santiago tour guide. As mentioned, probably because it was the end of a trip with already so many things to plan and prep for, it was just a "you take care of it" for Santiago (even in a way that Lima wasn't). I like to think I made good, even if the first few steps were re-tracing things we did in 2018, just improved versions of them.
The first few stops were all near the old town (though in Santiago, even the old town is modern with wide streets), starting off at the Museo de Bellas Artes, which was going through massive renovations when we all came in 2018. The main atrium with its impressive glass ceiling is still the same – a series of sculptures by Chilean sculptors in imitation of famous Roman / Italian classics, but the side exhibits were all new. The most interesting was the entire 2nd floor laid out with samples from the permanent collection throughout the now 100-year history (technically, 101 I guess) of the museum. This featured some truly stellar pieces like a take on Dante’s Inferno, or various samples of European classics, to some expectedly dark paintings from the Pinochet times. All in all, the Museum has been better each time I’ve visited and definitely a more meaningful site now than it was in 2018.
From there, we walked to the actual Plaza de Armas, which was as it always is – large, spread out, resplendent light. There was a nce Christmas Tree in one corner, though with the size of the actual square here (vs say Arequipa or Cuenca) the tree looks smaller than it actually is. The real star of the show are the buldings surrounding it, from the National Museum to Central Post Office, to the Cathedral that makes up one whole side. I’ve long held this to be the best Cathedral from any of the major South American cities, something that I think only got reaffirmed on this trip, with my parents agreeing as well. The only exception they noted was the newer gothic-style basilica in Quito, but the Cathedral in Santiago far outpaced the more direct Quito comparison of their old basilica (quickly, not sure why it isn’t a basilica…). The side altars are beautiful, the main alter is beautiful, the artwork on the ceiling is great, but it all still has that slightly South American feel where you aren’t put off by the over-the-top nature of so many of the great European churches.
All in all, the trip to Plaza de Armas was a success, as was the next step at the Pre-Colombian Museum of Art, which I find one of the best history / art museum combinations in the world. It isn’t too big where it is manageable to do in an hour. It always has a nice temporary exhibit in one of the courtyards. It is laid out in a super easy-to-understand way; the pieces are curated excellently, and finally that basement room of “Chile before Chile” is just an excellent showcase on the varied, long history of this country before the Spanish. Honestly, can’t recommend this site enough, even if 80% of the museum never really changes.
Similar in terms of my recommendations was lunch, as we went to Jose Ramon Sangucheria to have the most classic Chileno lunch you can have – two Sanguches. Jose Ramon is a classic spot in the heart of Lastarria, a vibrant mostly food neighborhood tucked to the side of Santa Lucia Hill. We actually walked this street back on Thursday on the quick waking tour intro I gave my parents, but in the intervening two days they had cleaned up a lot of the rightly assumed to be New Year’s indulgence. The sanguches are prepared quick on the softest of bread – we both got oxtail sanguches which were lovely with watercress, mayo (always a staple in Chile) and cheese, and I scarfed down a craft stout (the other reason to love Jose Ramon’s), and within 45 minutes we had the most stereotypically pleasant Chilean lunch.
After this, we headed back towards the old town area to now visit the La Moneda blocks (the main government office), but to our luck because of our lunatic president that same morning basically kidnapping Nicholas Maduro, security was heightened all around La Moneda and the blocks around it. The reason for the trip there was actually to visit the lovely underground Centro Cultural La Moneda, a wonderful modern underground mall & museum built under La Moneda square. It was still open, but to access it you had to get past a police partition, and I think this fact was known by most of the shopkeepers who closed up for the day. That combined with the fact the main museum part was in-between exhibits (the next one would start on Jan 26th), it was a wasted visit. What wasn’t wasted though was again how impressive and grand La Moneda is as a few block area – from the giant Chilean flag, to the park that extends below it. All of it screams to this country’s modernity, even if this area itself was around back in the Pinochet and Allende days as well.
The last stop of the tourism part of the day was a walk through Barrio Italia, the art district of six to seven blocks with a series of collections of stores going on either side. On the upside, this area is a glorious representation again of Chile’s modernity. You walk these blocks and feel you are in California, or Denver, or other US cities that also have such storefronts and areas. On the downside the shopping here is truthfully targeted at Chileans, so the craft markets, design stores, etc., aren’t necessarily selling the types of handicrafts tourists want (or at least the ones I want). Still, walking through Barrio Italia is a nice time, if only to grab a coffee and artesenal ice cream (a shockingly popular trend in Chile), even if on the “buying wares” side of things we didn’t do as much.
From there, my parents went back to rest up for the big dinner (Borago), and I went to Gluck, my favorite craft beer house. Gluck though is much closer to Barrio Italia, but I need to stop at our hotel. The Hotel we’re at being in Vitacura is great for many things (how fancy and pleasant that neighborhood is, the lack of traffic) which is why so many western chain hotels are there, but it is also not close to most of what one would see in Santiago, so bit of a problem in that sense. After being so effusive about the place I had to ding it for something!
Dinner at Borago was amazing – finally having a non-Summer menu (though on my first two trips there were only two shared courses). They also didn’t feature tomato this time. The dishes are wild, inventive, at worst really good and at best mindblowing (oh, that lamb). The sommerlier guy who used to work in Princeton was there and remembered me (more just remembered the face, but still!) and loved that I brought my parents who also know those same Princeton spots. While chef Rodolfo Guzman wasn’t there, his team carried the day anyway and we got our kitchen and Patagonian Lamb tour at the end. This was the last of seven tasting menus (including Peumayen, which to me isn’t really one) and arguably the best, just continuing the theme of seeing Santiago as savings the best for last.
After dinner, we did a couple drinks at Prima Bar, a top cocktail bar in the city in the beautiful CV Galeria (Santiago does so well at building things downwards into the ground, must be because building downwards also helps support foundationally upwards for earthquake-proofing – total conjecture). This is the one time staying in Vitacura is nice, because Prima Bar was a five min walk to the hotel for my parents. Prima Bar has some really interesting drinks, most based on more Chilean, Latin liquors and ingredients, which is a nice twist, but also mostly due to its location, closes earlier than other cocktail spots and was a bit quieter. Helpful for them, but not as good for me, which is why at the tail end of the day, after my stop at Club Ambar, I ewnt back to Siete Negronis which was a great time (as always). So happy they are both back open and in a better location honestly for the as well. For my last real night out of the trip, this was a great way to close it mixing some of the best elements of what makes Santiago great, top restaurants, great drinks and good clubs. As always, saving the best for last.
