Anecdotes of a Globetrotter: Day 116 : Santiago

As I walked around the streets of Santiago, I find myself comparing very often between Santiago and Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Overall, Santiago is more compact and with lesser sights to see, though I found it more pleasant walking around the town and got better vibes here than in Buenos Aires. Perhaps its because it is cleaner and the weather here is much better now, than when I was in Buenos Aires.

Transportation system in Santiago is also definitely much more efficient than in Buenos Aires.

I managed to cover most of the major sights on foot within 5 hours, including lunch.

Plaza de Armas

This is the main square in Santiago, which also houses the national cathedral, national history museum and the main post office.

Between the cathedral here in Santiago and Buenos Aires, I found the exterior of the Buenos Aires more impressive, however the interior of Santiago’s cathedral was much nicer.

Mercado Central

It’s time for lunch and the touristic information centre suggested that the best place for lunch around Plaza de Armas was at Mercado Central, where one can get their fill of seafood.

Mercado Central is a wet market filled with different vendors selling seafood and the surrounding of the market is made up of restaurants, all selling seafood of various sorts.

You will be approached from the different restaurants’ waiting staff to patronise their restaurant and everyone was very intrigued that I had come from Singapore.

One of the restaurants (San Agustin) is extremely huge within this complex and takes up the main square, and is completely unmissable. They had a good crowd of customers, but I felt that they were probably too commercialised and believe in the saying that “the biggest is not always the best”. And so I decided to suss out the other restaurants in the area.

I finally settled for one (Paila Blanca – which I later spoke to a local who mentioned that Paila Blanca is her favourite restaurant from the lot! I guessed I made a good choice!), which had a rather cosy wooden atmosphere, and ordered Paila Marina, recommended by the waiter.

It was a bowl of mixed seafood, comprising of fish, mussels, shrimps, calamari, clam, octopus, served in hot broth. It was pretty good.

Palacio La Moneda

Palacio La Moneda is the Presidential Palace and is extremely grand, with 2 main facades. La Moneda definitely exudes more grandeur as compared to the equivalent in Buenos Aires (Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo).

One of the facade faces the largest Chilean flag you can find in the country!

I think I was also lucky, as during the time I was there, I managed to catch the changing of guards taking place, something which only happened on odd numbered days.

Universidad de Chile

As I walked along the streets, I came across a building with large banners and signs and lots of graffiti on the building and rather rowdy atmosphere.

I walked towards the building and realised that it was the Universidad de Chile and recalled a news article a couple of weeks ago about major protests by students in Santiago that got out of hand, resulting in police having to control the crowd and many students getting hurt in the process.

Guess whatever they are protesting for has not been resolved yet!

Iglesia de San Francisco

This is the oldest church in the city. There is supposedly a museum in the building as well, but I wasn’t too impressed with the exterior of the church and decided to skip it.

Teatro Municipal

A historical performance venue, including international dance and opera, and is really a magnificent building.

Would have love to catch a performance here, but due to the short time I was in Santiago, that was not an option.

Cerro Santa Lucia

A really pleasant park, located in the heart of the city. I was previously warned to be careful with my belongings when I am there, but they must have beefed up the security.

Every individual entering the park are required to fill up their particulars, and I saw a number of security guards walking around the area.