09/09/2019 – Santiago, Chile

We had no alarm set, and so had a lovely lay in. We ate some cereal and yoghurt and chilled using the good WiFi. We spoke to Ellie and Matty on a video call and ate our leftovers from last night for lunch before showering and getting ourselves up and out for the day. We used the tube to get into the centre of the city and started our day of Santiago sightseeing by visiting the main Plaza. It was busy with people catching up and just relaxing, and was beautifully leafy with over 100 Chilean palm trees. There were a fair few police officers around that made it feel quite safe. Then we walked up to the central market, a wrought iron fish market that has been open since 1872, with fancy looking restaurants in the middle, and more casual ones around the peripheries. The building was interesting and we wandered through shaking off the waiters trying to hustle us, Josh taking some photos of course! Then we walked up to Estacion Mapocho, once a railway station but destroyed in an Earthquake, it is now a cultural centre. It was empty as there were no exhibitions on but the building was beautiful! We then walked to the Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda – A huge underground arts centre. The building itself was interesting and very modern, all concrete and glass. We browsed the many little art shops and went to a few of the different free exhibitions. It varied from a photography exhibition of Chilanean architecture to a bigger exhibiton of modern art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific.

We used the wifi at the art centre to locate both a brow studio and a barber for Josh, and ended up navigating our way into a huge old fashioned, beautiful building with a concierge, and going up in the lifts to find the studio in a small rented room. We both got threaded, the first time we have seen threading in South America! It was so sophisticated we even had to sign a form like you do in England, the first time for that too. After this we found Joshs barber and he had a haircut, for the first time in about 5 months! It was definitely needed! The barber went so short, it will probably last Josh another good few months! Next we went for some dinner. The kitchen at the air bnb was a bit grubby so we decided to go to ‘Bar Nacional’ a Lonely Planet recommendation. It was a really vintage, old fashioned casual classic Chilenean diner like place. With chrome counters and smart waiters. We both had a lasagne and a glass of white wine – which was glorious and cheap (cheap for Chile that is!) We left and got on the tube back to our air bnb. When we got in we packed up and showered and got into bed for a few hours.