Day 25: Touristing and Wandering in a Santiago Summer Heatwave
Woke to the sounds of Willa and James playing dominoes in the living room (click, click, click, click).
Given this apartment setting with no formal schedule, the kids have returned to their familiar weekend NYC routine: Wake up before the grownups, pour their own cereal, and enjoy an hour-plus of unsupervised play time.
We’ve loved having such free mornings to roll out of bed, exercise, grab coffee down the street and start the day at the playground.
Today at our usual see-saw spot, kids met a Sophia (4), her little sister and their grandpa, “Papito.” Sophia didn’t speak English but had both kids pushing her on the swings. She had a contagious laugh.
At one point, though, we looked around and Sophia was all alone at the playground with us. Papito and little sis were gone.
Sophia looked around, a little lost, poked her head out the gate to survey the street, came back and lay down quietly on a bench. I told Willa to go show her her digital watch again (this amused her earlier and we thought it might be a good distraction because she seemed sad), then a few minutes later I went over and said “Donde esta tu Papito?” (So proud of myself).
She spoke in Spanish and pointed to an apartment building nearby. Ok, so they live nearby. We were sure this was part of their regular routine — but we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave until Papito came back.
It was hot. We had things we wanted to do. But we couldn’t leave. Were we being too American?? Clearly this little girl’s Papito adored her and didn’t abandon her. But we stayed just to make sure.
About 10 minutes later, Papito returned and waved Sophia home. Phew.
From there we took the funicular up to the top of San Cristobal hill where there’s a chapel and giant statue of the Virgin Mary.
Funny: The gondola slows halfway up the hill for people who want to walk the rest of the way. A young guide popped his head in while the thing was still moving and talked to us in nearly flawless American English. In that 7-second exchange we learned he’d gone to Langley (public high school in Northern Virginia). Then it was over. “Did that just happen?” I asked.
The top of the hill has some piped-in peaceful Christian guitar music and signs reading “Silencio.” Supposed to take in the view, the Mary, the chapel and the dozing street dogs in thoughtful quiet. It was hot but lovely.
You take a modern gondola up, but a rickety hundred-year-old wooden open-air funicular back down. Pic below doesn’t show the steepness. As we waited at the top, we kept waiting to hear a sharp “Snap!” of a cable then feel ourselves hurtling down the track. A heated “what if” debate ensued. Teddy seemed to think we could throw the kids overboard and ourselves out in time. I really didn’t agree. I said: “I’ve had a good life,” ready to accept the crash.
The good news for all was that the funicular descended slowly and uneventfully.
At the bottom we wandered around the Bellavista neighborhood — street art, restaurants, nightclubs, funky houses, tire shops. Low buildings, tree-lined streets, hot, colorful.
Longtime Bensfield friend Nell Constantinople, who studied abroad here, had sent us a bunch of recs which we’ve used. Ate lunch at funky Como Agua Para Chocolate, which she promised had great Pisco sours. Promise kept!
A table made of an old brass bed!
We made our way home from there by foot, stopping at a playground (Castillo Forestal) and to examine some cats along the way.
At one point we browsed a hipster market near our place, and the kids were immediately swept up in the charms of a hipster magician booth. He showed them a bunch of card tricks and then these magic red finger lights. Each kid got a set and a lesson. They’ve been practicing and getting better! Ha!
Kid dinner at home: Hard-boiled egg, cucumber, hot dog and PB+J. Then bed with the fans full blast.
Teddy ducked out for a drink in Vitacura, the fancy suburb to Santiago’s east, for a blind “friend-date” set up by a business school friend.
Notes:
- It is freaking HOT here. In the 90s and climbing. Biggest heatwave in decades.
- Our Airbnb has no AC. We’re all good, though. Given the polar vortex back home, can’t complain.
- February here is like August in the US. The city empties out and everyone is on vacation/joke time. There are tourists here, but only from other South American countries on summer break.
- 50% of the entire Chilean population lives in Santiago, a city of 7 million. Kind of amazing.
- Literally only met two other Americans – a retired couple from Nevada at the top of the San Cristobal hill.
