While Anna sits typing a series of what seem fairly epic emails in response to various well-wishers, I find myself sitting on a sofa writing (in the "traditional" pen-and-paper sense of the word) a blog entry that is unlikely to appear online for a good two weeks, what with The Daily Rod currently extolling tales from Sao Paulo's concrete jungle (EDIT: turns out 2 weeks was optimistic). Nevertheless, memories are best penned when fresh, and the metronomic pitter-patter of a keyboard being incessantly barraged by fingertips is surprisingly relaxing on the mind.
So, we are in Santiago - something that was surprisingly close to not happening at all. It would be understandable to assume that this was for some earthquake-related reason, what with the world's media jumping at every opportunity to present a situation that is fully under control as a rabid cesspit of lawless carnage and terrifying destruction. Indeed, back in Bariloche when we were planning our next steps, we had no idea just how great a non-event the earthquake was in Santiago thanks to its ridiculously earthquake-proof buildings and generally über-developed infrastructure and planning - but at no stage did earthquakes feature in the impressively animated discussions that took place in our Marcopolloinn dorm room in Bariloche 4 days ago. Instead, it was made fairly clear that the capital city of the most developed country in South America was of no interest to Anna, and further proposed that my only reason for wanting to go to there (/here) was because it was the capital. The latter was a particularly interesting form of criticism - I'm not entirely sure how other people view these things, but when a country has a primate city that is also its capital and is located slap bang in the geographic middle of the country... well it seems fairly controversial to ignore it (and that's even before accounting for its history, culture and the fact that "it's a damn cool city" (SM). But of course, that's just me...Anyway, an hour or so of discussions eventually resolved themselves and, as shaper readers will have gathered from my last blog in Valdivia, we crossed over to Chile and have now made it here.
I'm pretty damn happy we did. Our stay is short - not even 36 hours - but that was never going to be the end of the world as I remain as adament as I was in KL, Australia and New Zealand - the whole "you can't claim to 'know' a city unless you've spent several days there" view is a hunk of bullcrap that is spewed from lazy travellers who can't be bothered to spend a whole day or two walking around and soaking up their surroundings. If you're willing to walk, I have every faith that you can get right under an average sized city's skin in a good day - my 17 hours in KL is more than enough evidence to convince me of that.
Of course, I am no longer on my own so the never-ending-walk paradigm that I'd adopted through the Asia-Pacific has had to be toned down, but we still managed a good 3 and a half hours or so yesterday checking out the Palacio de Bella Artes - half Chilean art and sculptures, half photography and modern art - and getting a fair perspective of the run of the city through the main Avenieda Estado shopping street that discects Plaza de Armas, the city's main square. Not a bad effort, and more than enough to leave a positive impression of the lie of the Santiago landscape - the blend of differing barrios (neighbourhoods), each providing a slightly different offering the the overall city package, is something that works particularly nicely here and, combined with a cool mix of buildings, parks and the usual city-style paraphenalia (the Hanging Gardens of Babylon-esque Jardin Japonese being a particular eye-catcher) gives this city a character that very much meets Señor Marshall's description of "cool".
The walking around caused some tired legs, so a few hours rest were in order before a wander around the Bellavista barrio where our hostel - La Chima - is located. In search of crêpes, we stumbled across "Patio Bellavista", a relatively new development between Pio Nono and Constitucíon (the two main streets of the barrio) that essentially brings together an array of chic eatieries, cafés and generally cool places to eat or hang out, all in a nicely designed plaza area. Perpetually hungry, I got myself a traditional French ham-and-chesse crêpe (complete with what was fantastically termed, in English, "Frenchy dressing"), while Anna bailed on crêpes and instead went for a speciality ice cream cone two scoops - one of watermelon flavour, one "fried bread" flavour...
Whereas Estado had been relatively empty when we'd traversed it earlier in the day, Pio Nono was absolutely teeming come late afternoon - Santiago's "lazy Sundays" in plain evidence. We joined the club with a round of beers, but took it relatively easy as we were being taken out to dinner by Cristian - one of my Dad's colleagues from CVCI who works here in Santiago (and was also behind the potential discounted night's stay in the sweet casino-spa-hotel in Valdivia).
Throughout our time in Santiago, we had been continuously struck by how unaffected the place seemed to be from the mahoosive earthquake that struck Chile a few weeks back. 8.8 on the (new version of the) Richter scale, it was the biggest earthquake anywhere in the world since the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004, and although the focus of the damage was city of Concepción, it was over 8 on the Richter scale in Santiago and displaced the capital a little under one foot to the west. Given that magnitude of the quake, and the insane media hype about the chaos that ensued in its aftermath, you'd expect signs of earthquake-based carnage all over the place - but it couldn't be further from reality. There was basically nothing to suggest anything had happened, and judging from the attitude of the locals, no one seemed particularly perturbed by the prospect of anything more or worse. It was damn impressive - and moreso in the knowledge that for all its development, the UK would grind to an even bigger halt that it managed this winter should an 8+ earthquake hit its fragile shores.
However, the earthquake was going to have one pronounced effect on our time in Santiago, and it came mere seconds before Cristian arrived at our hostel to pick us up. Quick as a flash, everything was plunged into darkness - computers died, lights popped out, and stepping outside it was clear that everywhere in sight was experiencing a power cut. After Cristian turned on the radio, it transpired that everywhere in sight was small fries - 80% of Chile had been plunged into darkness! Dinner plans were, understandably, somewhat uprooted by this turn of events - most restaurants generally require a splattering of electricity to undertake normal service; instead Cristian drove Anna and I to his apartment where we met his wife and his 2 young sons, the latter whom had taken to lighting every candle in the house and placing them on a giant tray. With the fridge conked out as well and no one really having any idea when power would come back, there was a strong danger of some perfectly good champagne getting ruined by going warm - so we passed a couple of hours enjoying champagne and snacks and the excellent company.
Finally, somewhere in the 10.30pm region, areas of Santiago regained power and we went in hunt of anywhere that was open and serving. Where we found was not where Cristian would have wanted to take us, but what with several rounds of drink and a stomach craving food, my bife de lomo steak went down an absolute treat (again, with some rather good pisco sour - apologies to LB). By the time we were back in La Chimba power had returned, but we were out like logs.
Today has been pretty chilled - we're off on a 2-hour bus ride to Valparaiso later so spent the morning enjoying some spectacular views of Santiago (such as that above) from the top of Cerro San Cristóbal, accessed by the century-old funicular railway. Up at the top is a particularly cool chapel - small, but with some awe-inspiring carvings (see below), and, much akin to Rio de Janeiro and Cristo Redentor, a massive statue of the Virgin Mary looking down over the city (see right - the Sun being perfectly placed as a halo). Examination of the dates revealed, to my surprise, that Santiago came up with the idea first - it has stood since the 1920s, whereas Cristo Redentor was consecrated in 1931. Somewhat beside the point though - the important thing was the majesty of the statue and, even more spectacular, the open air amphitheatre underneath it where Mass would be celebrated every weekend. Overlooking the Chilean capital, surrounding by beautiful vegetation in full bloom in the shadow of the glowing white statue of the Virgin Mary, I'm fairly sure it is the coolest setting for Holy Mass you'll ever see (UPDATE: you can now judge for yourself below!). 
Anyway, there are another tonne of photos that probably look fairly decent, but what with memory card viruses, pen drives going missing and general photo disasters, who knows if they'll ever be seen by anyone (UPDATE: the photos are safe, and here they are!).
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