My year on the road had almost come to an end, and the final stop was to be in Santiago, Chile. Besides the exorbitant prices (compared to the rest of South America), it was a great place to end the trip. A well developed, clean, accessible city with temperatures lingering around 30 degrees all week, a superb hostel, and most importantly, great company.
On Sunday afternoon I met up with Constanza, a girl I got chatting to on Couchsurfing. We went to the nearby Parque Arauco with some of her friends from the United States, and spent the evening enjoying the sunset over a picnic and some beers, gazing at the impressively large moon hanging low over the horizon.
The next day over breakfast I made friends with a few Aussies and Brits, and we spent the afternoon on the city walking tour. We learned about the infamous Salvador and Pinochet governments of Chile's past, but perhaps the most interesting story for me was that of Chile's dog culture. With so many stray dogs to be seen all over the city, our guide explained why they looked perfectly groomed and healthy. It turns out a lot of people in Santiago will care for and feed the dogs, some even going to the trouble of giving them the required vaccines and neutering them. They get enjoyment out of sitting in the park and being able to enjoy the company of a dog for a while, without having to take them home and pick up their poo.
The dogs there really are a different breed (pun intended) however. They look both ways before crossing the street, or sometimes even wait for the green man to light up before walking. They walk around with a focussed look on their face, as if they legitimately have an appointment to make, and I even heard stories of them taking buses to other neighbourhoods.
Another interesting facet of Santiago culture we learned about was the "Coffee with Legs" phenomenon. At some point in the past, someone decided that more men would come to coffee shops if there were girls in short skirts serving them. So, a bunch of these sexy coffee shops sprung up over the city, some even going to the extent of being a strip club, with a side of coffee. Of course, being a group of young boys, we made a beeline for one of these places as soon as the tour ended.
We walked back to the dodgy looking establishment that was pointed out to us during the tour, complete with black tinted windows and a small neon sign showing "Cafe". We walked in and immediately stood out as the overexcited gringos, and sat down for one of the most interesting, and surprisingly decent coffees I'd had in a long time.
With the Aussies and Brits leaving the next day, it was time to find a new gang. So on Wednesday I went out with two Americans to Cerro Santa Lucía to get a nice view of the city. Afterwards we walked around the Bellas Artes neighbourhood, sampling a few delicious empañadas, and then visited the fish markets. In the evening we went to the upscale wine bar Bocanáriz, and proceeded to down a bunch of incredible Chilean wines. Luckily, one of the Americans was in Santiago to progress his career as a Somelier, so we were guided by someone who knew what he was tasting.
