SANTIAGO VIEWS AND MARKETS
Yesterday we were picked up by Pablo. He was the first driver we met almost four weeks ago and on this morning was accompanied by his wife and fellow tour guide, Carolina. Together they run a business called Bike and Wine, but also do custom tours as well. Both are outgoing and well informed and happy to share their thoughts about Chilean life and the country’s recent history.
This was a morning of scenic views and markets. We first went to Cerro San Cristobal to ride the cable car to its summit. It’s the second highest point in the city and part of a large park with a swimming pool. Opened in 2016, this is a very modern and long cable car system. 
You drift and sway gently (there was no breeze) upward, stopping about of the third of the way for anyone going to the pool, and then continue up and up some more, seeing marvelous views of the sprawling city with the Andes Mountains in the far distance. There was some haze so not as clear as sometimes.
We exited at the top and walked up a few stairs for a view of the statue of the Virgin Mary which looms at the true summit up another winding staircase. We did not do that climb. But we admired the views and appreciated seeing both new Santiago with skyscrapers and the historic city with its low buildings.
To return to street level, we stood in the historic green funicular (1925) with its boxy wooden cars. This route to the bottom is a much straighter, direct one, and the ride shorter with less of a view. While en route and ascending and descending, we and Carolina engaged in a lively dialogue about the problems facing the Catholic Church and the mass resignation of all the bishops here after the pope’s recent visit.
We spent the remainder of the morning visiting three markets. The famous Mercado Central is an historic building, designed by an English architect and dating from 1872. Today it houses the seafood market and a plethora of restaurants. Larger fancy ones in the center of the building hoping to entice tourists with displays of their dishes and smaller ones ringing the periphery which the locals prefer.
Slightly separated are arrays of fresh fish for sale—salmon, hake, reineta, abalone—and all kinds of seafood from shrimp to clams to mussels to even fresh barnacles. Gazing into a barnacle was like looking at a pair of violet eyes. Eerie.
We also made the rounds of the produce market where cherries have just come into season, and beautiful strawberries and cabbages shared space with two kinds of corn (Americano and fatter Chilean ears), huge sweet red peppers, fat asparagus spears, and many sizes and colors of potatoes. Appealing colors everywhere we looked!
The flower market is also in this area, and I liked seeing the various arrangements for weddings and funerals as well as fragrant pink and white roses and a spray of multi-colored lilies.
It was getting to be quite hot (the morning starts out cool, but by noon the day heats up) so we returned to the hotel. We spent the afternoon relaxing before meeting friends of our San Francisco friend, Bernardo, for a lovely dinner at a nearby restaurant.
Today we will visit a museum on our next to last day in this vibrant city.
Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).
