There are two exits at the arrival gate and so there is a secret spy camera that monitors each one, which meant we were able to wrap our arms around mis padres before they even knew where they were. We crammed into a taxi and headed to their B&B. (Note: for future travellers to Santiago, if there are 3-4 of you, taking a taxi is much cheaper than a transfer. Negotiate the price before you get in and the taxi driver is still making a far better profit than a normal, inner city fare). Providencia Bed & Breakfast resides in a quiet, little street just off the car clogged Avenida Manual Montt. It is the upstairs section of a heritage-listed garden suburb townhouse that is split into two-level dwellings and has a very cute light well in the middle. Each townhouse is painted with the same deep crimson and cream and as you walk down the street, it is like you are stepping back in history, except for the modern day cars parked inch by inch along the curb.
Inside and up the stairs that appear as soon as you open the front door, a hall of dark, wooden floor boards opens onto a romantic living room and on the far wall, a traditionally framed window opens out onto the tree-lined calle below. The owner, Ignacio greeted us with his overly friendly gestures and creepy jokes, and showed my parents to their room - not the one I had booked for them but luckily equally as nice, with the bed laying adjacent to the large window overlooking the light well so that my parents slept under the starry sky that night.
The next day they ate fresh bread rolls, cheese, ham, jam and yoghurt for breakfast. First stop of the lazy, morning start was Palacio Cousiño: built between 1870 and 1878 for the very wealthy family owners of a coal mine, silver mine, and vineyard. In 1940, the palace was bought by the municipality and was used to house many famous guests, including a long list of international presidents. After a fire in 1968, the Mayor of Santiago re-opened the palace as a museum. Unfortunately, the day we arrived for our visit, the palace was still under restoration from severe earthquake damage but we were still able to take a free guided tour of the exterior and the gardens.
We then hit Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, a replicate of the Petit Palais in Paris. The palace is now a museum for fine arts, the oldest in South America in fact. The exhibition rooms flaunted paintings, images and films, a lot of which dealt with the Pinochet regime and the poverty-stricken areas of Santiago. From there, it is only a 15 minute walk to La Vega fruit and vegetable market, where we ventured to next. We waded through the bright, Picasso-like colours to the dirty, cheap merchandise cluttered streets and onto El Mercado Central. This market was originally the central market in town but has since been converted mostly into seafood restaurants and the atmospheric location is a big seller for the tourists looking to chime in on historic Santiago culture. We ate Chupe de Jaiba (crab) and tried some nice Chilean Sauvignon Blanc.
After a siesta in the tarde, we walked down Avenida Providencia and found a new boutique cafe, Kalafate, where we tried local Santiago brewed beer made by a friend of the proprietor, who also told us that he had lived in New Zealand not long back. He took the chance to practise his English and offered us a delicious gourmet pizza on the house. It was so good that we ordered another one. We talked under the lazy afternoon sun until it was time to head back through those tree-lined streets back to the B&B.
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