Sick in Santiago

We left Valparaiso the next morning and bought a bus ticket for our next destination, the Chilean capital, Santiago.

Lauren's thoughts:

We're just leaving Valparaiso as I am writing this and feeling so pleased to have discovered this city that sent my senses into overdrive. The wall art was so vibrant, the food markets exuded smells from fish to coriander (cilantro) and most places we went to
played timeless music from Frank Sinatra to old school South American music. I felt so alive there..... until the morning after yet another wine tasting eve. We had a great day with Christina and Tim, it's always a bonus when you meet cool people on your journey. 

We arrived in Santiago around 4pm and headed straight to our hotel. We were quite tired after the previous busy days so decided to leave exploring until the morning.

Deciding not to venture out and see a city as soon as you arrive is always a difficult decision, especially if it's good weather. You never really know if the weather will be as nice the next day and you never know what you might be missing out on! However, you have to be good to your body and look after it too!

We ate in the hotel that night and got ourselves an early night.

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Thursday night was one of the worst night's sleep for both of us.  Lauren had come down with a hideous sore throat and I'd developed a horrible dose of what felt like acid indigestion and neither of us could get comfortable at all.

Early Friday morning we made the decision that we needed to look after ourselves and decided to stay in our room for the day. The decision was made simpler by the fact that we were staying in one of the nicest hotels in Santiago.  Over the last year, I've been collecting loyalty points with IHG (Holiday Inn, Intercontinental hotels etc) and I'd saved enough for our New York hotel, Santiago and the last 3 nights of our trip.

Part of the deal is, if the hotel have an upgrade available, Platinum members should be offered one free of charge. We'd been given a junior suite on the 21st floor so there were definitely worse places to be ill!

Unless you're interested in the games of scrabble I played or English films with Spanish subtitles we watched, we'll leave that boring day's blog post there!

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We woke Saturday morning after 10 hour's sleep feeling a bit better.

We had breakfast and headed out on 'Tours for Tips' walking tour of Santiago.

Annoyingly, it was about 13 degrees and drizzly, a stark contrast to the 32 degree day of sunshine we witnessed from our bedroom window the day before!

However, we ploughed on and learned some really interesting history of this troubled city and saw some amazing sights.

Our guides in their distinctive 'Where's Wally' t shirts

It took no time at all for 3 stray dogs to join us on the tour. They stayed with us for the first hour and waited patiently at each of the stops for the guides to do their talk then they'd lead us on to the next place!

Next stop; The huge fish market

There was even some impromptu Christmas entertainment going on in front of a huge 'Christmas tree'

Next was the even larger fruit & veg market where one of the more unusual vegetables was 'black corn' which is ground up and used to bake with 

Half of the stalls were traditional farmer's stalls that have been at that market for hundreds of years. Typically, farmers will grow one product and sell that in bulk. In the last 15 years or so a lot of Peruvians have been taking stalls at the market and offer a wide variety of produce.

A typical Chilean farmer's stall selling just potatoes

A new Peruvian stall with lots more variety.

Randomly, in the fruit and veg market was one, lonely, barbaric butcher!

We stepped outside the market and were told the history of this ancient area.

"The Vega" as it's known is on the north side of the river. In the early 1800s it was decided that all the rich people and people deemed 'important' would live south of the river and all the poor and 'unimportant' would live north of the river.

The Vega market was started back then and from its inception to this very day, the market traders have an unbreakable solidarity that we witnessed as we walked around. They help each other and more importantly, they have an unwritten code that says, no one who comes to The Vega will be in need. They welcome the homeless and poor, widows and orphans and will club together to give food parcels to those in need. They are also among the first to respond to humanitarian needs in Chile too, loading trucks of food supplies, blankets etc and driving them to areas affected by earthquakes and tsunamis.

This mural on the outside of the market is their motto: 

"Despues De Dios Esta La Vega"

Which means:

"After God is The Vega"

What they mean is, if God doesn't provide, The Vega will.

You may not agree with the theology but you can't knock their heart.

We walked back through the market and it was packed! We loved the hustle and bustle.

This strange man was selling aprons that played Christmas carols and was personally wearing his whole stock! He was hilarious!

Our final stop was the colossal Santiago cemetery. If we'd known this was best part of an hour of the 3 hour tour, we may not have gone but it was absolutely fascinating.

At first glance you see a block of flats. Look closer and you see hundreds of graves over 3 floors.

These are called "Nichos" and are about the size of a coffin.

The family of the deceased will buy a Nicho for $1000 US Dollars and that tiny space belongs to the family forever and they can decorate them however they want.

When the next family member dies, the undertaker will remove the previous coffin and 're pack' the remains into a smaller casket so there's room for the next one. This will continue until there's no more room (some Nichos have 12 people in them)!

If the family can't afford $1000 they are offered a rental scheme at $150 per year for three years so they can save up the $1000. However (& this is not a joke), if they miss payments or can't afford the $1000 at the end of the 3 years, the Nicho will be repossessed and the body moved to the mass grave for all the poor people.

If you have a bit more money, Chileans often buy a bigger grave plot

.... And if you're really rich you can get a tomb built

There are large tombs for the military and past presidents

.... Apparently there's even one for circus clowns! It's built in the shape of a big top!

There are over 2 million people buried in the graveyard and while we were there a funeral was going on.

There are some huge cultural differences between Chileans and the Brits regarding graveyarda and death. Chileans celebrate the life and therefore have no problem with tours walking around the cemetery. It's a national park too so you'll often see families out for a stroll, cycling or people walking through listening to music.

We visited the children's cemetery and were really surprised as the parents bring presents on the child's birthday every year and even put invitations on the other children's graves to the birthday party of their deceased son or daughter. On the birthday, the parents gather and eat cake. When we visited they'd put Christmas decorations up and even erected a tree with presents under. Some of these children died in the 1970s.

We then learned about 'Animitas'.

An animita is a person, usually young and or mentally disabled and innocent, who dies a tragic death. These people are turned into animitas by people who decide that, as they were taken before their time and were innocent, they are now effectively a saint.

These people then pray to the animita and ask for a wish or favour. If the wish/favour is granted, they have to go to the place that the animita was killed (or their grave) and put a flag or a plaque saying thank you and the date that the wish was granted.

This is the grave of one of Chile's most popular animitas 'Romualdito'. 

Legend has it that Romualdito had a mental disability and from an early age he sold sweets on a particular street in Santiago. He was always kind to everyone and was loved and known by thousands around the city.

One night back in the 1940s, 18 year old Romualdito was walking home and he was robbed of his day's takings and violently killed under a bridge by the main train station.

Over the next few months and years he was made into an animita and people started asking him for favours and wishes. As they came true, plaques, candles and flags started appearing on the bridge by the station where he was killed, thanking Romualdito for their granted wish.

The chief of police decided enough was enough and decided to remove this "mess" but realised he'd have to do it at night as it would cause outrage.

He approached the bridge on his horse at midnight one Friday night and as he got close to the bridge, his Horse slipped on all the melted candle wax and fell on top of the chief, killing him instantly. Some say coincidence, others think this was some sort of karma. Whichever, it's a culture that we found incredibly interesting.

After the tour we went back to the fish market and ate at one of their many restaurants.

We shared the largest seafood soup we'd ever had and it was sooo tasty!

Our table was on the balcony, overlooking the old fish market which was actually built in Scotland and shipped to Santiago!

After the lunch we strolled back to the hotel taking in more sights of Santiago to pack for the start of our next adventure.