Friday, May 12th

Today is the first time that I'm sharing my trip with someone, and someone special at that. After I took a vacation from my vacation in April to head back to Canada and visit family (see D007 and D008), Aishwarya decided to come down to Chile to visit. We have some cool destinations planned, but the trip starts in Santiago. And I'm faced with now doing a whirlwind tour of the highlights of this city. Some of these will be familiar from just the last few posts (see D009 and D010), but we'll be getting new perspectives.

Starting with Cerro Santa Lucía, again [*]. Though, in a beautiful sunset light. Aishwarya and I took a nice walk through the microcentro (the downtown) towards the cerro to get lovely views of the city during golden hour.

I also mentioned a fact about Pedro de Valdivia, the founder of Santiago in dispatch D010, he is not the only famous figure to enjoy the view of the surrounding valley. I stumbled upon this plaque commemorating Charles Darwin's visit to the cerro.

Santiago, 27th of August 1834

… an unquenchable fountain of pleasure is to scale the Santa Lucía hill. A small, rocky hill that rises in the centre of the city. From here, the view is truly impressive and unique.

—Charles Darwin

We ended the night at one of my favourite restaurants close to where I live in Santiago. It's called Restaurante Valshi [†], and it's a little vegan joint tucked at the end of a dead end alley off Moneda street. In the summer it's nice to relax on the patio tables out front, but the inside is no slouch either. Being set in an old house, it's nice to sit by the fireplace (non-functional sadly) in the "living room" of the house. Anyway, we had an unintentional fried food bonanza, with a vegan chorillana, which is Chile's version of poutine, 4 empanadas with different fillings, and some sandwiches. Delicious food, and we had leftovers.

Saturday, May 13th

We stayed in the area today and walked back to the Plaza de Armas [‡] for the other hits. We checked out the façade of the Palace of Courts of Justice [§]. And really, palace is an apt descriptor. The building's pillars are impressive as well as the carved heads above the windows and the other details. Sadly, it's not open for visitors most of the time. Outside the court is a statue of President Manuel Montt, who was elected president of the Supreme Court as well, after his country-level presidency. The other man on the pillar is Antonio Varas, Montt's right-hand man and main advisor who served in various roles in Montt's cabinet.

Once at the Plaza de Armas, we checked out the Metropolitan Cathedral [¶]. I'm not too much of a religious person myself, but every time I am travelling to a big touristy city, I feel like I have to make time to see at least one church. They aren't a hidden gem, like how I find cemeteries to be, usually they are packed. But the scale and aura the buildings give off inspires awe. And this cathedral is no less impressive than others, and invokes the same feelings. The artwork on the ceilings, the sculptures decorating the walls. All of it evokes a certain feeling, even if you're not religious.

The cathedral fronts one of the cardinal sides of the Plaza de Armas. It was told to me that main squares in Spanish colony capitals are all laid out similarly, with the Plaza de Armas being flanked on three of the four sides by the Church, the Town Hall (City Government), the country government. This is for sure the case of the main square in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here in Santiago, the Cathedral is here representing the Church, and the Municipal government is still represented on the square as well through the National Museum inhabiting the old Cabildo of Santiago, but the modern municipal seat moved just one building down.

Speaking of the National History Museum [#], we took a gander and were lucky enough to be there at the right time to take a tour of the tower portion, which runs every couple of hours. Take note of the circle window and the balcony in the first picture (and don't mind the haircut…). We get some pretty striking views of the Plaza de Armas from a unique angle.

To wrap up our day, I took Aishwarya to the Suecia neighbourhood and showed her the apartment building I stayed in on my first trip to Chile in 2010. We then puttered around the Providencia neighbourhood, stopping at some bars and restaurants. All in all, a great first full day in Santiago for any tourist, but it was made more special by the person that I was spending my time with.

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[*]	Cerro Santa Lucía

[†]	Restaurante Valshi, Príncipe de Gales 73, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile

[‡]	Plaza de Armas de Santiago, Pl. de Armas, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile

[§]	Palace of the Courts of Justice, Compañía de Jesús 1140, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile

[¶]	Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago de Chile, Pl. de Armas 498, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile

[#]	National History Museum of Chile, Pl. de Armas 951, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile

[AA]	(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) This photo was taken by and is © Aishwarya Abhiram.