Sometimes you would think it is difficult to write about the same cities over and over again. Then again I've written daily diaries across all seven trips to Cape Town, so doing Santiago for a third time shouldn't be an issue. Santiago also been just an amazing city all aroudn helps as well - especially with the strongness of its places good enough to keep going back to, and enough few new things to keep trying out.
The day started with a trip to Plaza de Armas, the main square in Santiago, which is beaming with life on another fairly cloudless, not humid 82degree days in STGO (as their large stylized sign calls it in the square). The square has many buildings worth visiting, though this time I limited it to the Cathedral - which was as beautiful as ever. Honestly the best church I think I've seen in South America (comparing it to the ones in Lima and Buenos Aires). Some of the sculpture work in the Santiago Cathedral rivals what you would see in Europe - as does the overall size and airiness.
A block away from the Plaza de Armas sits one of the better history museums of a particular area - the Museo del Arte Pre-Colombiano. I've visited it now each time I've been to Santiago, despite 2/3rds of it being roughly the same. The two story main building goes from around 1600 BC to 1500 AD (European Conquest) showing the development of Central and South America - so this is squarely NOT a Chilean museum. The artifacts are all interesting and just the right amount. It whets your appetite for the basement.
Before we get to the basement, the rotating exhibition side building - the only new part this time - was showcasing some beautiful textiles in Chilean history - some intricately detailed and some giant. Anyway, in the two-story ceiling basement sits the same conceit but now purely about Chile - going through in great detail the artwork, ceramics, t3extiles, sculptures of pre-Spanish Chile.
It's the first of what I call the "Three Part History of Chile in Three Museums" - with this one taking you uptil around the time the Spanish conquered. Then the main "history' museum in Plaza de Armas (went last two times, not this time) gives Chile's history from Spanish conquering through to Independence right up to the Pinochet coup. And then the Museo de Derechos which is all about the atrocities of the Pinochet regime and the fight for independence. I plan to go there tomorrow.
After this I headed over to Pulperia Santa Elvira for lunch, which is a new spot for me. It's a truly great restaurant serving michelin star type food in a much more homey location. The main chefs were michelin trained and serve a three course meal where you pick one of four starters, one of four mains and one of four desserts. All of them sound just amazing, so definitely a place better to go in a couple or group where you can each order different things. For a starter I got a two part dish, one a local shellfish served in shell with fixings and then a beautiful bass tartare with tons of other stuff. So fresh, so good. As was the main of another Chilean fish with two sauces, both luscious but one green, one oragne, and a bit of piure served in it as well. Even desert was incredible - a mushroom & vegetable popsicle which somehow was far better than you would think based on that description. Santa Elvira is just a beautiful place.
I had another new spot in mind to go to next, which was the Ralli Museum which is a small art gallery with rave reviews. Of course, when I reached I realized it is closed all February for vacation. Of course, this was not noted on my brief googling, so another tough miss on this trip, but did allow me to do another new thing - which is roam aroudn the beautiful Parque Bicentenario nearby. It is a stunning park, well manicured with sculptures, gardens, ponds, all with Sanhattan (Santiago's FiDi) overlooking it. This is all in Viticura, an upscale neighborhood of Chile, and walking it you would think you are in the US.
From there I did more roaming over in Barrio Italia, which is just an amazing area. So many indoor art and food fairs (indoor meaning there's a roof, but generally open walls). So many little boutiques. So much art. Granted, quite a lot of it is not necessarily Chilean, and a lot of it is clothing, so not exactly what I at my peak souvenir mindset, but I did find a few doo-dads within a really nice furniture and home goods stores. You can spend a while in Barrio Italia and never feel bored. Same with Gluck Restobar which had eight great taps of which I tried three of them.
Dinner was at Borago - and of course more to come on that, but the meal was fantastic. Hard to know if I liked it more this year than last year. I did freak out early when they brought over a giant pink tomato to say that this delicacy of Chile was a star being used in many dishes in many forms. I hate raw tomato. I was worried this was going to be ruined. The first dish was basically drinking tomato juice (with some other vegetables) out of a hollowed out pink tomato. All I'll say is if every tomato was one of these giant pink tomatoes, I would probably eat tomato more.
After dinner was the last miss of the trip, where I found out yesterday that Siete Negronis, a top cocktail spot, closed due to a rent dispute. But the loss of Siete Negronis ended up being replaced by what honestly is a better spot - a cocktail bar called Backroom Bar, with has live music until 12:30am as well. The backroom of the Backroom is also open air (the reverse of the Barrio Italia spots, this with no ceiling but walls) and was just a great setting to try some cocktails.
The last bit if tourism for the day isn't a new, but went well enough it may replace La Feria (or even Espacio 93) as my go to, as for a second night the sideroom and downstairs room of Club Ambar was amazing. Just a great spot to dance the night away finsihing up as fulfilling and fun a day in Santiago as I could've wanted. This is exactly what I had in mind when I wanted to end the trip in Santiago.
