2003 Santiago de Chile

Santiago de Chile

ARRIVAL

Photo 01 The enduring popularity of the Central Park Track Club website across the world has plenty to do with the periodic travel reports. In May 2003, our reporter traveled to Santiago de Chile to file this report. But in order to get there, it has to be found first. So here we (and that includes the airplane pilots) are looking for the city amidst fog. The pilot has calmly assured us that we have at least one hour's fuel left and we can also try a blind landing after that ...
Photo 02 We arrive early in the morning just as dawn showed its rosy fingers. For all we know, New York City is every bit just as pretty in the morning, but we wouldn't know because we don't ever wake up that early.
Photo 03 For waking up, nothing beats the shock value of a extra-large bottle of Cristal beer. Outdoor advertising is much more imaginative in Santiago than in New York City, by which we mean the appalling drabness of the billboards between the Midtown Tunnel and LaGuardia Airport.
Photo 04 We arrived on a Sunday, which happens to be El Día de la Madre (Mother's Day). So what else is there to do other than go out to the central pedestrian mall and walk with all the families in town.
Photo 05 Inevitably, our camera finds a newsstand. Notwithstanding the thousands of photos that we have taken for the Central Park Track Club website, our main claim to fame has always been ... Latin American newsstands!
Photo 06 For extra value, here is another newsstand. No, not all newsstands are the same, please!
Photo 07 Something normal for a change? How about Barney in Santiago? The white figure in the back is a human statue.
Photo 08 This is a red human statue. We also saw gold and silver ones, with there being one on every block.
Photo 09 For a change, this is a stone statue. Whatever else you may say about this city, it's got more statues than any other place that I have been to.
Photo 10 And much of this is of the humorless El-Cid-riding-on-a-horse variety.
Photo 11 ... which is balanced by the poor sense of humor from our reporter about horse-trading.
Photo 12 All of this is in the central square, the Plaza de Armas, in front of the Catedral de Santiago.
Photo 13 Walking around made hungry. Where should we go? How about McDonald's? NOT! Actually, our reporter has another claim to fame as a photographer of McDonald's around the globe.
Photo 14 Just to show that we are fair, we'll also show a Burger King. But we obviously didn't travel all this distance for a Whopper.

LUNCH, SUNDAY

Photo 21 We had carefully asked the hotel concierge for a recommendation and he had suggested an authentic seafood restaurant (marisquería). So we brought a map and had the location marked down. Of course, we promptly got lost but fortunately not irretrievably so. Eventually, after some inquiries, we arrived at the restaurant Donde Augusto in the middle of the fish market in Mercado Central. For starters, we had ... pisco sour, of course. The first appetizer to appear was the shrimps (Caramrones al Pil Pil) which was polished off before the camera even came out (excuse: we were really hungry by then). This is the next appetizer --- the fried calamari (Calamar Apanado).
Photo 22 There were three people at the table. One of them was so NOT hungry that she ordered two appetizers --- a mixed vegetable salad, which she did not have to travel all the way to have.
Photo 23 Her other appetizer was the famous Ceviche de Corvina. Well, this did not match anyone's idea of what a ceviche looks like. Worse yet, the fish did not taste fresh.
Photo 24 Our honored companion from Colombia ordered the salmon (Salmon Salsa de Mariscos).
Photo 25 Our reporter's choice was the sea bass (Corvina Salsa de Mariscos). The main emphasis about the two fish entrées is not the fish. Rather it is the creamy sauce piled on top of the seafood (shrimps, scallops, etc). The sauce is so heavy that we could sink a few inches into the ground.
Photo 26 After a meal, how about an ice cream? Eh, no thanks, we'll just watch ...

STROLL, SUNDAY

Photo 27 Afterwards, it was time to take in the sights of Santiago. The most famous site must be the Palacio de Gobierno, which was the place where President Salvador Allende died when the Chilean army and air force assaulted during the coup in the 1970's.
Photo 28 We were assured that if we had come a couple of years earlier, we would still be able to see the bullet holes in the façade of the building. Alas, we came too late as the place has been restored. Instead, the court yard is lined with art exhibits.
Photo 29 The front of the Palacio de Gobierno is a vast square, with the ubiquitous statues.
Photo 30 This statue is of President Eduardo Frei Montalva, 1964-1970.
Photo 31 There are plenty of other things going on in Santiago. Here is a group of evangelists praising the Lord in front of Citibank.
Photo 32 At a mall contest, children compete on cutting their mothers' hair. Yes, we did say statues are seen everywhere ...
Photo 33 Here is an elegant sun-drenched building, with a graffiti slogan "Clase Contra Clase". But the sun looks a bit suspiciously too bright ...
Photo 34 Indeed, we peered through the window and saw that it was just a propped-up building shell, very much like the buildings along the Metro North Line in the Bronx, New York City.
Photo 35 And this building was marked with a row of this particular spray-painted graffiti.
Photo 36 The river Rio Mapocho runs through the heart of Santiago. It is fall right now, so the river runs slow. It is a sight when the river roars down with the melting snow and heavy rains.
Photo 37 As you might expect from this photographer, the camera drifted inevitably towards the rubbish at the bottom of the river. In this photo, we counted a foraging bird, a shoe, a plastic bottle of coke and a lot more. It is not that we are picking on Santiago --- have you ever wonder what is at the bottom of the Central Park reservoir? Bottles, cans, car tires, bicycles, bowling balls and even a car chassis!
Photo 38 More obsession with the imperfect --- a park bench.
Photo 39 All this walking was giving us a big thirst. Unfortunately, there were not a lot of pubs opened on Mother's Day Sunday. So we had to go all the way to Suecia district where all the pubs are. How about the Infierno Discoteque? Eh, no thanks. It was closed, in any case.
Photo 40 We suppose that we could have done the River Pub, Louisanna.
Photo 41 Instead, we opted for the Old Boston Pub. Yes, we traveled from one end of the world to the other end for this. Although we could have ordered a Budweiser, we settled for a schopp, which is Cristal Oro draft beer.

DINNER, SUNDAY

Dinner was later that evening at the Isla Negra Restaurant in the El Bosque district. This is in fact just one door down from the Hereford Grill Restaurant, the place where we had our lunch during our previous lightning visit (all of 12 hours on the ground in Santiago). One appetizer was Criadillas a la Mantequilla Negra (Prairie Oysters sautéed in black butter) and the other was Empanadas de Queso (cheese empanadas). My entrée was Corvina Margarita, Arroz Con Primavera (sea bass with mixed vegetable rice). Once again, it was not about the fish --- it was about the very heavy creamy sauce. I sank a few more inches into the ground, and the bottle of Santa Rica Casa Real wine helped too. The restaurant had its own folk band, but it was a bit disconcerting to come down to Chile to listen to the very Cuban Guatanamera and the very Mexican Cielito Lindo. We searched through our memories, and we could not name any Chilean songs.

LUNCH, MONDAY

Since there was a great deal of work to be done today, we went to a restaurant in the neighborhood of the office. This was positioned as a place where 'normal people' go to. The name of the restaurant was Donde La Elke, located on Dardignac (which I was told in no uncertain terms that it was a French name) in the Bellavista barrio. The name of the restaurant means 'this is where Elke is.' The lady in question, Elke, is the German proprietor who makes two dishes each day. So it was going to be either item (A) or item (B). All four of us selected 'spaghetti in red sauce', and this was accompanied by a cup of clear soup, a green salad and a banana dessert. The total tab was around 7,000 pesos (note: don't be afraid --- it's around US$10) for four people. As they said, this was a meal for 'normal people.'

Photo 42 Salad
Photo 43 Spaghetti with sauce
Photo 44 Spaghetti with sauce afterwards, in one person's plate with lots of sauce remaining.
Photo 45 Spaghetti with sauce afterwards, in another person's plate. Needs an infusion of sauce, and we know where we can get them. This is quite mysterious, as we don't know the lack of uniformity was caused by the original serving (namely, the Big Bang Theory) or the consumption (namely, the Inflationary Universe Theory).
Photo 46 Banana dessert

DINNER, MONDAY

A special treat tonight from the local host to a place named De Cangrejo A Conejo (From Fish To Rabbit). This looks distinctly like a speakeasy, since we walked up to an unmarked building in an industrial area, rang a bell at a unmarked doorway and were led into a full-scale restaurant bustling with yuppie types.
I was determined to avoid yet another heavy, creamy sea bass at all cost. This was also the week after Easter Sunday, so it was also inapprorpiate to eat Bugs Bunny (in any case, someone at the table did order Conejo Campesino (country-style rabbit) and noted that it was chewy and had far too much rosemary herb). So I gunned for the Marisco Thai (Thai-style mixed seafood). This is obviously fusion food, with this detailed explanation: Deliciosa combinación de ostiones, camarones del Ecuador y camarón nacional, salteado con ají amarillo, crema de coco cilantro y curry acompañado de arroz salvaje. I was perplexed and asked my Chilean companions for an explanation of the difference between Ecuadorean and Chilean shrimps. The answer came back as: the Ecuadorean shrimps are disorganized whereas the Chilean shrimps are organized. Duuuhhh! But for asking that question, I was given a lecture --- the local host said, "Why are you the one who is asking all the questions? I live in this hole at the bottom of the world, and I have to tell you all about it. Why don't you tell me something about the more interesting place that you came from!?"
But first things first. The shared appetizers were: Carpaccio de Atún (a tuna that was too lemony), Ceviche Recholo (a sea bass ceviche that was too sour, so that maybe we should gone down the scale and gotten the Ceviche Cholo instead) and Ostiones Roquefort (oysters that were too creamy). Yes, it was a strange mix with the lemony, soury and creamy stuff being passed around.
When the entrée came, it turned out that the Ecuadorean shrimps were jumbo-sized whereas the Chilean shrimps were small. In fact, I had to search through the coconut sauce before I determined that the Ecuadorean shrimps were in the plural (i.e. more than one).
When dessert time came around, I looked at the menu --- Brownie de Castaña (Rumbe de Berry)? Strange, but no thanks. I had to choose between Cheese Cake de Frambuesa on one page versus Delicioso Cheese Cake de Fambruesa on the next page. It made no difference, because they were the same thing. It takes a survey questionnaire proof-reader to find typographic errors.

LUNCH, TUESDAY

Photo 51 A big successful breakfast morning brought us to lunch at another normal persons' restaurant in the neighborhood. This restaurant carries the overhead sign of El Toro Restoran, and not El Toro Restorán or El Toro Restaurant. Well, they can call themselves whatever they want. More interesting is the poster for the play Pornostars. And even more interesting is the bull's head over the doorway --- or is this a pig's head?
Photo 53 This is restaurant menu. We will have you know that someone had to draw the red-inked figure by hand on each and every menu. When you look at the prices, please bear in mind that the exchange rate is about US$1 to 700 pesos. As we said, this is a normal person's restaurant.
Photo 52 To minimize the damage, I went for some known entity --- Camarones al Pil Pil (shrimps in butter sauce), which was Sunday's lunch appetizer. For the entrée, there was supposedly 250 grams (=0.55 pounds) of shrimps, which is very cheap at 4,600 pesos (~ US$6.50).
Photo 54 Someone seemed to have enjoyed his Limo Liso A La Plancha.

DINNER, TUESDAY

Withdrawal symptoms are setting in, as we dig in at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and refused to go out for yet another creamy seafood meal. The lightest meal was deemed to be at the Japanese restaurant, Matsuri. It suffices to say that we deserved what we got, for having flown fourteen hours to taste Japanese food.

LUNCH, WEDNESDAY

Photo 55 Due to a slight delay, we lost our reservation at the restaurant of choice. Instead, we found ourselves back at the El Toro Restoran. Upon further observation, we should withdraw the assertion that this is a normal persons' hangout. All the other clientele here appear to be aspiring actor/actress types, dressed in grunge outfits and carrying their portfolios. For today's meal, the struggle to find an even lighter meal ended with Caldillo de Congrio (Eel Soup).

HOMEWARD BOUND

Photo 70 One more sunrise in Santiago de Chile
Photo 71 First stop, Miami
Photo 72 Miami Beach
Photo 73 Verrazano Narrow Bridge, Staten Island-Brooklyn, New York City
Photo 74 Manhattan Island, New York City
Photo 75 Manhattan Island, New York City
Photo 76 Manhattan Island, New York City
Photo 77 Manhattan Island, New York City
Photo 78 Manhattan Island, New York City