Santiago (named for the patron saint of Spain, the one we call Saint James the Greater, and they call sometimes San Diego, San Jacobo or San Jaime) was founded in 1541 when the Spanish Conquistadors arrived and announced to the local tribes that they were setting up a city. Sounds familiar doesn’t it.

The locals fought back, earthquakes and floods gave the foreigners a hard time, but the place survived and when the war of independence from Spain was won in 1818, (the revolution, led by the wonderfully named Bernardo O’Higgins), it took off. The main drag, a multi lane raceway with gardens separating the lanes, is named after him …

The city now has 7 million people, a massive smog problem, and occasional glimpses of the snow capped Andes which half ring it to the East.

While the main drag is pretty stressful, there are tons of little streets off to the side where there are restaurants, boutiques, where arty stuff sits but little seem to be sold, lots of atmosphere, buskers and relative quiet.

There are churches everywhere, as you might imagine in a predominately Catholic country, and the cathedral, sitting at the centre of town, in the Plaza de Armas and built in 1800 or so, is one of them.

It’s very restful inside, with the remnants of incense to stimulate the nose, piped Gregorian chant to do the same for the ears, and the riot of colour and pious objects doing it for the eyes.

Here’s the facade of the cathedral in the Plaza outside, named Plaza de Armas because it was here in the early days where the inhabitants could congregate to get arms if the city was attacked.

There was lots of rain up to the day of my arrival, so I got fairly wet navigating my way from the airport to the Airbnb I had booked, a few hundred metres from the Plaza de Armas. But since then it has been splendid weather, much the same as Kerang’s. This is not all that surprising as both places are on the same parallel of latitude, although Kerang is 79 meters above sea level while Santiago is 520 metres and has the massive Andes behind it.

There is a river that passes through the city called the Mapocho. In earlier days, when the city was started, it was probably a pristine waterway, fed by the snow on the surrounding mountains, but now it is a sad drain…

The text of the graffiti says ‘because the revolution is necessary, the revolution is possible’. There are lots of graffiti around, most of it ugly…

but occasional muriels delight the eye…

In the early years of the 20th century there was a democratic socialist government led by Salvador Allende, which came at the end of 40 years of stable government. The USA supported a right wing military coup in 1973, whose leader Augusto Pinochet, took over and ruled a repressive dictatorship until he was ousted in 1990, when democracy was restored.

The USA has a history of interfering in countries in the region, engineering coups, preferring dictatorial corrupt governments over any that smell of socialism.

There is a pedestrian traffic light system here, as in other places too, which is rather quaint. As the green clock ticks down, the green man walks briskly…but with 5 seconds to go he puts on a burst of speed,

I have spent several days just wandering and looking, and have noted the number of demonstrations and ceremonies at the memorials in in middle of the Avenida Libertador Bernardo O’Higgins. Here’s a lone brass player waiting for the show…

The pointed hat and spurs are interesting.

Food is pretty much the same price as in Oz, so eating out is a bit expensive. Fortunately I can use the kitchen in the Airbnb.

The guy here, named Nestor Lopez, is a psychologist and is good fun. He speaks English and has a collection of Star Wars etc stuff which dominates the living room.

The tv is bigger than the fridge, but I guess the connexion with boganity doesn’t work here.

My room is pretty small but has a basin and toilet ensuite. The bed is fine.

I called in to the school where I’m going to study Spanish later. They were very friendly there, and I chatted with one of the students who turned out to be a Turk. I managed to stutter out some Turkish pleasantries, but then reverted to Spanish, then gratefully to English. I get the feeling that the place will be fun.

The roughly 24 hours spent getting from Melbourne to here, via Sydney and Auckland, was a bit of an ordeal, but I seem to have suffered little jet lag. Maybe the 14 hours I slept the first night helped.

I did have a moment of panic when I rocked up to the passport control. I had printed out the visa, and had it beautifully laminated, and handed it over to the woman…but no, she required the original email with the QR code. Bloody hell! As the queue behind lengthened I fluffed around on the phone trying to locate the original, my sleep deprived brain barely able to act logically. Soon she suggested that I get out of the way, find the document and join the end of the queue, which I did; but by now the line was 150 people long, and moved at a barely perceptible speed. Lesson #1 always print the originals.

Bread here is pretty woeful. In the restaurants where I have eaten it has done a good job of impersonating a wettex, and the baguette I got from the supermarket wasn’t much better. So I went to an artisanal bakery where for a bit more I got this one…

which was much tastier. The keto diet has largely got out the window.

People here in shops and restaurants have been very friendly. There is very little English spoken, and even my confession that ‘no hablo muy bien Español’ seems to modify the rapid-fire response only marginally. I nod a lot and smile…it seems to work.

There are 7 flights of stairs to get to the Airbnb, and the lift doesn’t function. I am developing thunder thighs as we speak.

That’s probably enough for the first few days. I am enjoying it greatly, and the feet are holding up well.

Hasta la próxima vez amigos…until next time

Adios amigos.

T. (I have to be careful when I say my name. If I say t as in English pronunciation,they think I’m saying Cherry. So I have to say a Spanish t, which has the tongue between the teeth, almost like a th.) It seems to work; better than being called Cherry!