I had arrived. Time for the fun to begin! Oh, wait. Not quite yet. First immigration! Chileans and foreigners share the same queue in Santiago – a queue which stretched the entire length of the switchbacked line! (All of the flights from the US arrive around the same time early in the morning). Fortunately, the police had about 20 stations opened and the line moved quickly. What always worries me most is I’ll get stuck behind someone with a Visa issue (what Chile does is once you’ve made it through the queue you are lined up three deep at each immigration station), but fortunately my station went quickly and after answering the normal questions and showing my test results and vaccination record I was through to baggage claim. My bags were amongst the first off (LATAM truly respects the Priority tags for business travelers – indeed on both my domestic legs all the Priority bags were off first – if only Delta did the same as I often think the priority tag makes sure your bag gets treated worst on Delta!) and I was through the nothing to declare in moments.
Once through immigration/customs, there is a small lobby before you get dumped into the terminal. In this lobby are desks for the 3 official taxicab companies. All three charge the same price so I just went to the one with the shortest line. The price is a flat 25,000 Chilean Pesos (roughly $25 – during my trip the exchange rate was in a tight band between 912-944 pesos per dollar but for the purpose of this summary I’ll just use 1000 because I am a liberal arts major and terrible at math.
A driver took my bags and we were immediately off to where his vehicle was and off to Santiago. The drive was on a toll road (autopista) and heavy with traffic as it was morning rush hour and it took nearly 40 minutes to drive the miles to my hotel in Providencia, the AC by Marriott which is attached to the largest mall in Latin America and the tallest skyscraper in Chile. The AC by Marriott is a limited service hotel and while the brand originated in Spain, you would think it had been Scandinavia given the simplicity of the design of the room. I was allowed to check-in immediately and as an Ambassador Member a bottle of wine and charcuterie tray was delivered to my room as a gift from the hotel.
First stop, Jumbo – think a Super WalMart but Chilean. On the 1st floor of the attached mall it allowed me to stock up on water at a much cheaper price than upstairs at the hotel (only 760 pesos for a 500ml bottle of Spring Water). I also stopped at an ATM to take out local currency (and if you think charges are way to high in the US for using an ATM that doesn’t partner with your bank – you’ve seen nothing yet – charges at both Santander and the Bank of Chile are about $8US!).
Next, I wanted to keep this a light day, so I walked about 20 minutes over to the Metropolitan Park of Santiago. Think Central Park but far larger and on a mountain. Not being dressed to hike to the top, for $2500 pesos I jumped on a cable car which took me to the top in about 5 minutes – with gorgeous views of Santiago and the Andes beyond. At the top I walked to San Cristobal – a lovely historic church on top of the mountain along with an absolutely huge statue overlooking the city. It was a beautiful day, with a nice breeze and temperatures near 90 – but with no humidity. The park was crowded with school groups, but still peaceful.
Next I paid another $2000 pesos to take a funicular to the street as I was now on the complete opposite side of the park. I next headed into the Zoo for a $4000 pesos entrance fee. The zoo is small but well run with reasonable sized enclosures and the animals being well taken care of. What I did not realize until it was too late, was the zoo was built into/on the side of the mountain and the path through the zoo necessarily caused one to walk nearly to the top of the mountain before heading back down to ground level.
Now thirsty and hungry, I went in search of lunch and found a wonderful cafe where I sat in a shaded garden with a fountain and enjoyed a coke, an out-of-this-world tuna steak with grilled vegetables, and two empanadas (beef for one, cheese for another). Total cost, 35,000 pesos including tax, tip (10% is standard here), and agua mineral.
By now, it was late afternoon, and I took an Uber the 15 minute drive back to my hotel (2300 pesos), and took a nap.
I slept more than expected, waking up around 6:30pm. Not being very hungry I headed to the rooftop bar of the hotel and had a ham and cheese panini and glass of Chilean wine for 25000 pesos. The rooftop bar was crowded with locals, and offered beautiful views of the city and the Andes beyond. AC by Marriott’s do not normally have a bar or full service restaurant but this one likely does because of its unique location attached to the skyscraper and seems quite popular as a result. In fact, the bar was full but as a hotel guest some seats are set aside so hotel guests always have space!
Food done, it was upstairs and off to sleep. An early day tomorrow as I was flying off to Patagonia before 10am!
Next Post: Pictures from First Day
The Kahn Man 