2025 Sep 29: Santiago

Monday. A bit cooler and overcast this AM. Went back to our favorite cafe in the neighborhood for cinnamon rolls and cappuccini - Cafe 56:

Strolled through our favorite neighborhood - Lastarria. It’s at its best in the evening, but here it is in the morning:

And into Recoleta and Barrio Patronato, where there is a huge open air market. Mannequins generally emphasize a certain body type…and dogs are dogs the world over:

Beautiful church Iglesia Convento de La Recoleta Franciscana:

Spent quite a bit of time in the amazing Vega Central in Recoleta, a huge food market. Worth a visit!

Then further out to the Cementerio General, the main cemetery in the city. The stripe at the bottom of this photo gives an overview of the type of government that was in power over the past couple hundred years:

Long walk down Avenida La Paz (downtrodden, not recommended), ending at a small flower market and, and 2:45, time for lunch at Mercado Central (worth a look!):

Had King Crab:

after lunch this Pakistani Muslim fellow came buy selling perfume and (after a glass of wine and 2 pisco sours apiece) we got into a long discussion of religion, science, the origin of the universe. The upshot: the Big Bang is only marginally less preposterous than the Father, the Son & the Holy Ghost.

A random street scene in Bellas Artes (by the way the whole time we’ve been here we never strayed beyond about a 1 mile radius from Centro Histórico, the center of the city):

In our second of three passes through Lastarria today, we had a coffee on a 2nd floor terrace overlooking the street:

Barrio Santa Lucía:

Here is the Iglesia de San Francisco, apparently the oldest standing building in Santiago, built in the 16th century. We liked the name:

There’s a four square block Barrio Paris-London, where there is supposedly interesting European architecture. If it’s there, we missed it. But there were some cool features, e.g:

…and finally back to Lastarria to the Bocanáriz Vinobar to sample Chilean wines. We got their ‘premium flight’. It was fun but I give both the bar and the wine a B+:

And home. Walked 8.2 miles!