After breakfast we set off to see more of Santiago. We had seen a little on Sunday when we arrived & had a walk around our neighbourhood & through nearby parks.
Today we wanted to see the Changing of the Guard (if it was on! information is sketchy; it is only held each other day - we just couldn't work out WHICH one so we took a punt & went anyway). The Metro yet again (640 pesos or about $US1.30) delivers you ANYWHERE.
We made straight for the Palacio de La Moneda in the centre of the city. It faces Plaza de la Constitución which is overlooked by a statue of former President Allende (much to the chagrin of diehard Pinochet supporters). Sure enough, at 10:00 a.m., the steets were blocked, a helicopter took off from an enormous skyscraper take-off pad nearby, armed guards circled the plaza & the guards marched or rode horses in. It was pretty impressive! We had entertainment for nearly an hour with the presidential brass band playing Xmas carols, would you believe it! It was terrific.
Afterwards, we wandered off to the nearby pedestrian-only precinct, the Ahumada which is a pretty chic area & then headed east to Cerro Santa Lucía which is a steep little hill right in the centre of the city given over to parkland, gardens, fountains, walkways & staircases that meander up to the top with views to the Andes - which we COULD see but there was a lot of smog!
It was getting very hot - about 33 deg C here today, but it felt hotter. We walked to the main square, Plaza de Armas, crowded with people. Across from it, is the Catedral Metropolitana: construction was begun in 1748 but earthquakes & fires delayed its completion until 1830. We took refuge in here from the heat & the crowds; from a side aisle we watched & listened as a service was conducted. It came to me while sitting there that is was quite neat to be here in the main cathedral in Santiago de Chile & 4 years ago we were doing the same but in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain (after cycling the Camino).
Outside once more & we took the nearby Metro to the station at Quinta Normal to visit the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos. This is in fact the Museum of Memory and Human Rights and is dedicated to commemorate the victims of human rights violations during the civic-military regime led by Augusto Pinochet between 1973 and 1990. People started disappearing: men, women and children; babies taken from murdered parents were given to the military families to raise. Pinochet wasn’t just suppressing the Left but rather exterminating. Many left the country, returning many years later with their children who had been often born overseas: all feeling dispossessed for different reasons.
Finally I was able to make sense of the signs I had seen in other parts of Chile: "Donde estas?" "Where are they?" So sad.
This was our last stop for the day. We did not plan on doing anything else as we wanted to have time to re-group, which is what we are doing now, back at our hotel: outside, downstairs in the garden patio area, under a jacarandah tree.
Dinner - just around the corner. A very simple, unassuming place but with the nicest food, mostly vegetarian & seafood.
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