Saturday February 12--Santiago

Saturday--February 12--Santiago

Too much Pisco Sour mixed with jetlag, I am really tired today.  However, there is much to do and see in Santiago so I drag myself out of bed and go downstairs for breakfast.  This is a very quaint B&B and breakfast is served next to the living room.  There are 5 or six tables.  I sit at the one that is set up for one person.  It’s a nice breakfast with fruit, bread, a plate of meat (I won’t eat), some sort of scrambled eggs in a small saucer and coffee.

After breakfast I walk over to Providencia Avenue to the tourist office I had seen yesterday.  I wanted to find out information on how to get to Valparaiso and other beach towns along the coast.  They were very helpful and told me it was easy to get the bus to Valparaiso.  They also gave me a brochure on Vina Del Mar and a map with the other beach towns.  They didn’t seem to know if there were other hotels along the coast.  When I said I was interested in visiting the Pablo Neruda house they said I needed a reservation for a tour in English.  They phoned the house and said I could have a tour at 11:45, it was 11:00.  O.k. great.  

The Metro

I took the metro to Banquedando, the stop for Pablo Neruda’s house.  Since I had been here the night before it was easy to remember where to go.  The street was empty as compared to bustle from last night.  However in the middle of the street I see these people doing acrobats.

There were 3 other people for the English tour.  A Canadian couple and an American guy.  

A window at Neruda's House

The tour was very interesting not only for seeing the house but learning about Pablo Neruda.  I read his poems when I was college and remember really enjoying his writing.  I didn’t realize how important of a person he was in Chile besides being a poet he was a politician, quite the communist, and an Ambassador in many parts of the world.  

The eyes are used instead of "caution" signs

There are three Neruda houses in Chile; this one in Santiago, one in Valparaiso and one in Isla Negra about an hour south of Valparaiso on the coast.  The tour guide said of the three the best is the one in Isla Negra. (no photos were allowed to be taken in the house).

Grapevine in the courtyard

The guide walked us through this house which is shaped like a boat.  Neruda like everything about boats but was afraid of the water.  The guide also told us that Neruda liked to collect many odd things most of them without value.  He had lots of fettish’s and he wrote odes about them.  For example he had a fettish with watermelons and wrote an ode about watermelons.  Unfortunately many of his things were destroyed when the Pinochet regime came into power.  They ransacked all his houses and burned most of his books.  What is left now was saved by his third wife, Matilde who was the one that set up the foundation that now runs all the houses.  They have done a great job preserving and recreating what the house was like when he lived there.

If you come to Santiago I recommend visiting this house.

mural on the street of Neruda's house

mural on the street next to Neruda's house

So much fabulous art on the street walls.

After the tour I decided I would go on the afternoon bike “political history” tour.  I thought I could walk there but wasn’t too sure where I was going so I got back on the metro.

I found the Biciclete Verde office and asked if I could join the afternoon tour.  There were two other people and yes I could join.  I had about 45 minutes so I went to get something to eat before the ride.  

I walked up the street and found “El Toro” restaurant and had the most incredible Salmon Cerviche I’ve ever had.  

Salmon Cerviche

Actually, I’ve never had Salmon Cerviche before.  While I was  eating Emily called from Israel.  She told me about her new roommates and the change in her program.  She has moved to Jerusalem where she will stay for the remainder of the program until the middle of June.  It was a sad day because she was on her way to the one year memorial for Avi Schaefer.  So sad, I can hardly believe a year has gone by.  I was glad she was able to attend.

Isabel, the guide, and Paul from Britain

I finished my delicious lunch and walked back to the bike office.  Today the tour guide was Isabel 

and there was a couple from Britian who were the other participants.  This couple have been traveling since September and will not return home until August.  Love to meet these people who are way more out of the box then I am.  They started in Mexico and traveled through Mexico, Central America, Columbia, Peru, I think some of Argentina now Chile then they are going to Easter Island, New Zealand, Australia, Asia......incredible.  They were about my age and I asked how they could have so much time from their work.  They told me that in England you can ask your job for a leave of absence for up to one year.  Really.  That would never happen in America.  The wife (can’t remember her name) is a biology teacher and I never did find out what her husband did.  

statue in a park dedicated to "The Little Prince"

Besides Isabel there were three other people from the company who joined us as trainees.  This tour took us around the downtown area through some more parks (where Isabel showed us a Cafe that specializes in having books like a library.  She said that books are so expensive in Chile that this cafe, there are several, was created so people could go there and use the books.  It’s also a place where they have lectures and other kinds of cultural presentations.), to the President’s house (which is not used as a residence), and to one of the houses of torture. 

La Moneda, is the seat of the President of the Republic of Chile. It also houses the offices of three cabinet ministers: Interior, General Secretariat of the Presidency and General Secretariat of the Government. It occupies an entire block in downtown Santiago, in the area known as Civic District.

In La Moneda square there is a large statue of Salvador Allende 

and in the front of this enormous building is an enormous Chilean Flag.  Very impressive.  I appreciate that the people here talk about and recognize the terrible things that happened in this country.  They are healing very well and this country is one of the most properous in Latin America today.

Front of La Moneda

Then we rode to the house where much of the torture by the Pinochet regime took place.

Known by its former street address, Londres 38, the house was the headquarters of Chile's Socialist Party until Sept. 11, 1973, when Augusto Pinochet ousted Socialist President Salvador Allende and Pinochet's forces took over the building.

On the cobblestone street they are plaques with the names of the people who were never found.  

The group in front of London 38

The building was closed but Isabel said that during the week it is open and they have tours.  I had heard there is also a “memory museum” that is suppose to be fantastic.  Although only in Spanish I was told it still has an incredible impact.  Don’t know if I’ll have time to visit.

Our last stop was the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center, another reminder of the destruction of culture by the Pinochet regime now revived.

Koi Sculpture made of cloth

Built in 1972, shortly before the 1973 military coup, the Diego Portales building became the center for the legislative and executive branches of the military regime under Augusto Pinochet.
A massive, windowless block along Alameda, the primary artery for traffic in Central Santiago, the Diego Portales building was a mar on the face of Barrio Lastarria, one of Santiago’s most elegant, historic and artistic neighborhoods. Even in its post-Pinochet days as a convention center, the Diego Portales building stood as a hideous reminder of the dictatorial government. Reclaiming a site that was before a symbol of military repression - which was brutally perpetrated amongst the creative classes - and dedicating it to the arts, delivers a potent message: it reaffirms the importance of the arts in Chile’s past, present and future. 

At the end of the ride they took us for ice cream.  This was the first ice cream I’d had since Israel.  Delicious!

It was nearly 6:30 when we returned to the office.  A great day, good exercise and education.  Several of the guides walked me to the metro station and made sure I got on the right one back to my hotel.  I was exhausted.

When I got off the metro I was a bit turned around but righted myself and found the hotel.  Arriving at the hotel the found Gabriella, one of the maids.  I asked her about arranging for a taxi for the morning since I was leaving for Valparaiso.  After our taxi discussion she told me that there had been an accident in my room.  She broke the night guard for my mouth. I couldn’t imagine how that had happened because I remembered leaving it in it’s case before I left in the morning.

She explained (with demonstration) how when she was making the bed she threw the pillow on the nightstand, where the night guard in it’s case was (but the case wasn’t completely closed), the pillow knocked the night guard case off the nightstand onto the floor.  The nightguard fell out of the case and she stepped on it.

FUCK.  This was not good.  Of all things to loose or be taken this being broken was bad news for me.  I couldn’t imagine traveling for another 6 weeks without it.  Grinding my teeth.  OUCH.

I asked if she could get Gloria, the owner, on the phone so I could have a conversation in English about this horrible situation.  

Gloria was no where to be found.  I was very upset and tired to boot.

I immediately email my dentist and explained what happened and asked for a suggestion.  Could I try to buy something over the counter. O.k. I was a bit panicked.  For me this was worse then having the Blackberry stolen.

Dr. Joe, my dentist answered me within the hour saying that if it was broken in two pieces I could probably use it.  This was good and it indeed did work.  Thank God!  He also told me that the cost of a new one would be $590.00.  Great, who is going to pay for that.  I know it was an accident but shouldn’t the owner of the B&B have some responsibility?  At least I can use it until I return when I will have to have another one made.

I needed an xanax tonight.

Not a good way to end a good day.

Good night.