We are lucky to discover our neighbor Deborah (who actually lives here permanently) was brought up in this neighborhood. She takes us in hand to discover her Santiago. First, we find we are living in San-hattan, in the shade of the huge downtown financial district high rises. We had not walked that direction, just north to the metro and into town, so didn’t realize we were 15 minutes away from the largest shopping mall in South America!
But also heading east, we are in the ritzy residential areas of LasCondes, Vitacura where the affluent and rich have their palatial homes set up the foothills of the Andes.
Chile is so narrow you can ski in the morning and go to the beach in the afternoon in winter! Nice pathways for running, biking, etc. run along the parks there, with the golf club and military club (the house built by Allende’s wife and never inhabited) set opposite of another. Gorgeous green and treed areas mask chichi galleries, homes, and all the small businesses catering to the beautiful people.
We have lunch at the end of the lovely Pirque Bicentennial at Mestizo, a lovely restaurant with open air dining, crisp white shirted waiters and a lovely array food and wines.
At 3pm Deborah goes off to her driving job and we decide to walk back through the park. Stinking hot and dodging from tree shade, we all the 1.8km in 32 degree heat and I suffer for it later with a sort of heat stroke I think. But we pass the enormous Costanera Centre Mall and - success - find an Apple store and buy the gizmo ($50) to download my SDcard camera photos to my ipad, my insurance.
That evening, I have vaguely recovered from the heat, so we walk about 30 minutes to the tapas bar we have found. It serves reasonably sized and priced food in the evenings. And it’s home to what has now become Ted’s favourite beer, Tarahumara - strange because that’s the tribe in N.Mexico that we visited some years back.
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