Our Great Adventure: Santiago Day 196 02/04/2015

Although neither of us had a great nights sleep we still woke up in a much better state than when we were here a week ago and feeling the full effects of jet lag. After a light breakfast at the hostel, we set off in the lovely morning sunshine for the 15 minute walk to the Museo de Bellas Artes, which was the start of the 3 hour city tour we planned to go on. We were to join the "Tours for Tips" team, the same ones who had done the very enjoyable tour around Valparaiso. As we had seen the major city centre sights the previous week we elected to go on the "hidden" city tour, which was led by Carlos, a very cheerful fellow from Columbia, who had been living here for the last 3 years. Our group of 12 (mix of American, British, Argentinian and Bolivian) set off for the first stop which was the fish market. En route Carlos explained how multicultural the city was due to many different nationalities of immigrants over the last 200 years and pointed out Spanish, German and Swiss architecture. The fish market which was located near the river was a thriving hub of activity and despite the smell we all enjoyed watching the hustle and bustle of the place. The building was erected in mid 19th century and the architecture was very beautiful (the dome was a little like the Crystal Palace) and the whole thing was built in Scotland of all places and shipped over to Santiago. In the centre it has a collection of a dozen restaurants (all selling fish courses unfortunately for Diane) and is regarded as the 5th best fish market restaurant place in the world. We then headed over the river to 2 other markets frequented by the locals. The meat one had all types of cuts you could think off (and many you haven't seen) plus lots of meat awaiting preparation. The second one was much more pleasant to the eye and nose as it was the fruit and veg market. The array of colours and smells were wonderful and Carlos pointed out some of the produce that is only grown in South America. He also explained that there is a growing Peruvian influence in the market creating even more diversity and choice. We were treated to some local fried bread with very spicy sauce and then jumped on the metro to go 2 stops to the city's cemetery. Its a huge place (reminded us of the one we had been to a couple of time in Buenos Aires) and covers the equivalent of 117.5 football pitches (202 acres in all). Here Carlos talked about how Chilean class structure is prevalent showing us the boxed graves of poor people, larger mausoleums of the middle class and huge tombs of the rich and famous. Families would all be buried in the same plot to save money and we thought about what a grisly job it was for the cemetery workers to have to reopen graves and add latterly deceased members of the family. Carlos advised as Chile is still a strong Catholic country then cremation is still very rare, hence the "demand" for burial plots. We stopped in the shade at one of the huge tombs in the cemetery occupied by a past president, Salvador Allende. He was the first democratically elected Socialist President in the world and his manifesto was the make Chile more egalitarian and move the money and power away from a few rich people and corporations. His grand nationalisation programme soon made him some powerful enemies including some US mining corporations who were being told to start paying Chile tax. They didn't like this and complained to their government, led by President Nixon and very paranoid about any left wing governments (thinking everyone was in bed with the Soviets). When some communist terrorists tried to accelerate Allende's reforms by force the CIA started getting involved. Not long after this on 11 September 1973, there was a military coup, Allende committed suicide (which was the official version although it's impossible to do so with an AK47 which is what he was shot by) and a military junta was formed led by General Pinochet. He led the country until 1989 when he was voted out of power in the first elections since the coup. Whilst the economy boomed under his leadership over 10000 Chileans were killed or went missing and when he fled to the UK, Margaret Thatcher supported him from extradition as a way of thanks for Chile supporting the UK in the Falklands War. Even after 42 years people in Chile are still divided about who they thought was right; Allende or Pinochet, so we think it's a topic we will best avoid on our travels here! A local 'terramoto' drink and then lunch followed the finish of our tour and we then returned to our hostel via the metro and foot to spend the rest of the evening planning our routes and accommodation in Chile and Argentina for the following few weeks. Dinner was a quick pizza and wine at a lovely Italian restaurant just off one of the centre's parks and then an early night as we needed to be up sharp in the morning for our 11 hour bus journey south to Villarrica in the heart of Chile's Lake District.