March 18 – San Antonio Chile

Today was turnaround day for the cruise ship.  Passengers were leaving the cruise, new passengers were arriving and passengers on the back to back cruises were either staying onboard or going on excursions to vineyards or in our case Santiago, the capital of Chile.

Santiago is about an hour and half from the port of San Antonio.  During the bus ride to the capital we crossed the Colchaqua Valley, which is world famous for its white wines.  Most of the terrain is dry and rocky, except for the vineyards which are very lush and green.

Santiago is a beautifully city situated at the base on the Andes mountains.  Unfortunately this can sometimes caused severe smog problems but today the air was clear and fresh.  Because it is Sunday, traffic is at a minimum. I would suspect that this helped contribute to the air quality.

We started the tour off by visiting the historical section of Santiago. This area has most of the government buildings. The buildings are built in a classical European style and they would not be out of place in Paris or London.

In the court yard of the Constitution Palace, we were able to catch the daily changing of the guard.  It was a very impressive ceremony with plenty of military pomp.  

We walked past the Presidential Palace where our guide told us the battle that took place when the elected socialist president Savador Allende was overthrown by a military coup lead by General Pinochet and backed by the CIA.  The coup lead to the deaths of thousands of citizens for no other reason than their political beliefs. Eventually Pinochet was arrested and charged with crimes against humanity.

Savador Allende's last address to his people

We then had a nice lunch where got to taste a Pisco Sour.  This drink is very popular in Chile.  It has a taste very similar to a Margarita. 

We then travelled to an artisan market called Centro Artesanal Los Dominicos. There were some very attractive handicrafts but we didn’t buy anything.  One solid wood carving that did catch my eye was a penguin wine bottle holder.  It was beautiful but it cost 980,000 pesos or about $200.

Our guide was very informative and had a great sense of humour.  I suspect that a lot of his comments about the conditions of the working poor and the distribution of wealth were coloured by his socialist views.  One fact that stuck with me is that the average wage is about $400 US / month.  Towards the end of the excursion he did say that he supported a new political party which was a populist party with centralist fiscal policies.