Changing of the Guard & a City Tour of Santiago (1-28-19)

Monday, January 28

No alarm was set and our bodies must have needed extra sleep because we didn't wake up until 8:15 am...later than I had planned. I hustled to get a shower and wash my hair and then discovered that my flat iron plug didn't fit into the electrical adapter that we had brought (a cheap one that we were gifted at the travel clinic). My formerly dark red coarse hair has evolved into fine white/blonde superfine hair that is as frizzy as it can be and I never go anywhere without using my flat iron. To make matters worse, my hand mirror I brought had shattered into many pieces inside my makeup bag. I made do with just the hair dryer and pulled a hat on over the frizz. (I managed to borrow an adapter from the hotel so only had to endure the frizzies one day.)

Kent and Laurel had booked a bus tour for the day to the Embalse el Yeso...a reservoir outside of Santiago in the Andes Mountains and they left before we were even out of bed. Bob and I went downstairs and enjoyed the breakfast buffet included with our room. There was much to choose from, but the highlight was the delicious ripe fruits. I added some scrambled eggs and a little yogurt with granola. I also picked up a sopapillo to try which was just OK. A good cup of coffee and I was ready to start the day.

Our plan was to get to La Moneda Palace in time for the changing of the guard at 10 am. This only happens every other day and today would be our only chance to attend. We were running a bit late, but I took time to stop and ask the hotel concierge about where we could purchase tickets for the Hop on Hop Off bus. He actually had some to sell so we just bought two tickets at the hotel. The 4% markup in price seemed worth the convenience over trying to find the Turistik office to buy them later. The cost was just added to our hotel tab.




We could hear the band playing as we walked the couple of blocks from the hotel towards the palace. The band and troops assemble across the street and walked along the street down the side of the palace building and then into the Constitution Plaza. We fell in line behind the horses at the end of the parade and followed them till we reached the plaza.

The ceremony was about a half hour in length with the band playing some popular tunes in among the military type salutes and maneuvers.

La Moneda Palace and Constitution Plaza

As the crowd was breaking up, we saw a representative from Turistik and stopped him to ask where to locate the nearest bus stop. I assume we could have just purchased tickets from him if we hadn't already gotten them.

He pointed us in the right direction...about a half block away. Just as we got there a bus was pulling away. It was 10:30 then so we walked back across the street and sat on a park bench in the shade next to Constitution Plaza to wait on the next bus which was scheduled a half hour later. At 10:50 we decided we should get back to the bus stop and just as we got there another bus was leaving. We started running and this time they opened the doors and said "hop on!" We climbed to the top of the double-decker bus and sat on opposite sides where we could maximize our photo taking.

Our pass included earphones that we could plug in to hear the commentary in English. The entire loop takes about 2 hours and is a great overview of the city. We aren't really city people, but we were impressed with what we saw and surprised at how huge Santiago really is! Such a busy city with so many people walking. Lines for public transportation also seemed long. Here are a few of the many photos we took:

Statue of San Martin

La Moneda from the front. (The changing of the guard took place on the opposite side.)

The bus passed by our hotel...the Hotel Plaza San Francisco

Costanera Center (or better known as Gran Torre Santiago)...the tallest building in South America with 64 stories.

So many buses!

The only time we "hopped off" the bus was at the stop for the funicular going up Cerro San Cristobal, the highest point in the city. There is also a teleferico (cable car) but it is closed on Mondays. On Monday the funicular didn't open until 1:00 pm and our timing couldn't have been better. We arrived at 12:55 and were near the front of the line that started forming. By the time the doors opened, the line was growing quite long. The girl selling tickets bashfully asked our ages and gave us the senior citizen price of 1500 pesos each (2000 CLP regular price or about $3.)

Ticket line.

Funicular going up the hill.

Going up and meeting another car coming down.

From the top we could see the whole city of Santiago. There is a road going to the top as well and we ran into the couple that had been in the row ahead of us on the flight from Atlanta who were doing a private tour. At the summit was a statue of Virgin Mary which stands 14 meters tall on top of a pedestal which is over 8 meters high. I could feel myself overheating so only made it part way up and then waited in the shade while Bob went the rest of the way.

Before our trip, I had made a list of food and drinks I wanted to try while in South America. I was able to mark the first one off the list when we ordered a mote con huesillo from one of the snack stands on Cerro San Cristobal. According to Wikipedia: Mote con huesillo is a traditional Chilean summer-time drink often sold in street stands or vendor carts. It is a non-alcoholic beverage consisting of a sweet clear nectar like liquid made with dried peaches cooked in sugar, water and cinnamon, and then once cooled mixed with fresh cooked husked wheat. Very refreshing and we enjoyed it while looking at the view. 

After taking the funicular back down, we waited about 11 minutes for the next Hop on Hop Off bus to arrive. We rode all the way back to where we initially got on, near La Moneda. It was after 3 pm and we hadn't eaten since breakfast at the hotel. I had written down the address for an empanada place that we had seen on one of Kara and Nate's vlogs. It wasn't far away and we followed directions on Google maps to locate the restaurant.  (Thank you T-Mobile for cell service in Chile!) It was a very small restaurant with a few counter seats available inside but there were also tables and chairs on the sidewalk. A waiter gave us a menu and we chose four different kinds of empandas. I ordered a queso (which I knew was cheese) and also a pino which was filled with lots of onions, beef and a boiled egg. Bob picked two different empenadas that both contained shrimp. From the time we placed our order to when they were set on the table was literally less than one minute. (Hence the name "el rapido"!)

El Rapido is right next to the Museum of Early Colombian art and a group of violinists were playing in the outdoor courtyard...wonderful dinner music to go with our empanadas!

The walk back to the hotel was down the same pedestrian street we had walked the previous night but this time it was bustling with all kinds of vendors. It was around 4:30 when we finally got back to our room...hot, sweaty and red-faced.

A shower felt so good...and then a nap. Kent and Laurel didn't get back until around 6:30 pm and after they changed and cleaned up a bit the four of us left around 7 pm to have dinner in one of the little restaurants we had spotted along the side of Plaza de Armas. Checking off two more items on my list of foods to try, Bob had pastel de choclo and I ordered chorillana.

Pastel de choclo is a South American dish...similar to corn pudding. 
The filling usually contains ground beef, chicken, raisins, black olives, onions or slices of hard boiled egg.

Chorrillana is a Chilean dish consisting of a plate of french fries topped with different types of sliced meat, sausages and other ingredients. 
Most commonly scrambled or fried eggs, and fried onions. 

We strolled around the plaza afterwards. There was a large group who had gathered around a man preaching. We also saw several others preaching in the plaza and wondered if that was a regular occurrence on Monday evenings.

Plaza de Armas

Reflection of the Metropolitan Church.

When we got back to our hotel room it seemed overly warm. The AC didn't seem to be working, but we were tired and just decided to put up with it for the night.