For our last days in South America we rented a cozy apartment in the middle of Santiago. It costs the same as a private room in a noisy hostel and you have your own kitchen! Santiago is an ideal transition city, as it is a very modern city with a very European touch. If you do not know where you are, you would most probably rather guess Spain or Portugal than South America, also as in Chile there are not many indigenous looking people.
Santiago’s main sights are located in the center but there are lots of other interesting, sometime hidden, places. We learned about them on the two Spicy Chile walking tours we went to. The tours did not only show us the different monuments and quarters but taught us also a little about the Chilean history. I did not have much South American history at school and so it was a little shocking to hear, how brutal it was. Since the conquest of the Spanish until the end of the dictatorship 1989 its history is filled with public tortures and other cruel actions.
Despite the dictatorship the land is economically stable, part of it because during the dictatorship they privatized nearly everything. Another surprise was that the life is cheaper than in other cities. We learnt that this happens because of the centralization. Even the newspapers are cheaper in Santiago.
Off-track the touristy paths we went to the racetrack. Every Friday and sometimes even on Mondays they have horse races. It was really exciting to see the races and in my first bet I even won! Also we noticed the differences between our lame tourist horses and the incredibly defined racehorses.
All in all, although we did not visit a “coffee with legs bar”, Santiago was a perfect finale for our South America trip; sunny, interessting, good restaurant and resonably priced.
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