My First Weeks in Santiago

It's been nearly three weeks since I moved back to Santiago de Chile, and it's been a very busy time so far! Life here is completely different to the life I was living in Wiltshire, but mostly in a good way. And although things haven't exactly gone 100 percent smoothly (my suitcase went missing for over four days, and finding an apartment to rent is proving to be a difficult process), overall, I'm really happy to be back here.

Of course, the best thing is that I'm with Claudio again, after over a year of not being able to see each other in person due to the pandemic. And it's also been great to see his family again (we're actually staying with them until we're successful with our apartment search). 

In other news, I was happy to finally get started with my new job this week, and it's mostly going well so far.

Another interesting thing that happened this week was that we went to the inauguration of President Boric. We waited on Alameda avenue (the main street in Santiago) for his car to go past on its way to La Moneda palace, and he waved at us as he went past! It was really interesting and memorable to be part of such a historic event.

Finally, even though we've had a lot of things to do since I arrived here, we've had time to explore both new and familiar places around the city, and we've even been on a trip to visit some beaches we hadn't been to before (I'll be writing about that soon!) Santiago looks quite different to how it looked last time I was here - there's a lot of graffiti all over the buildings and monuments in the historic centre, due to all of the political upheaval that's taken place in Chile over the last couple of years. Some of it is interesting street art, but most of it is just ugly-looking scribbles. But it's still really nice to be back here and seeing some of my favourite places again!

Here are some highlights!

Old Favourites

Cerro Santa Lucía

Parque Bicentenario

Parque Metropolitano

New Discoveries

Iglesia de la Divina Providencia

It was quite a grey evening by the time we passed by this church, but I took a picture of it anyway, as I think it looks very Latin American, and quite different to the churches in England and the rest of Europe.

Parque O'Higgins

We had actually been here before, but this time we went to the Chinese garden for the first time, which was a very pretty place to look around.

Parque Mahuida

A couple of months ago, I read an article about this park, which said that Andean mountain cats had recently been spotted there! But they are shy creatures, and unsurprisingly, we didn't see any during our visit there. However, we did meet an adorable little tabby cat, who immediately wanted to be our friend! And we also had a great time sliding down the mountains on the Rodelbahn toboggan ride, and completing a short trekking route up to a nature reserve.

Barrio Yungay

I wanted to visit this particular neighbourhood because of its colourful houses, and it definitely didn't disappoint. Being there reminded me of images I've seen of Havana.

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes

This is a place I'd always thought I should visit during my Year Abroad, but I never got round to going. Now we've finally been, I would definitely recommend it. For starters, entry is free! And it has a varied collection of paintings, sculptures and other more unusual works of arts, so it's a great place to spend a couple of hours. The museum's building is also very beautiful, both inside and out, though it's looking a bit worse for wear at the moment.

Castillo Forestal

This is actually a restaurant, but it also makes an interesting sight to see, as you don't expect to find a French château in the middle of a park in Chile!

English Emporio

This is a totally British shop located in the Vitacura district of Santiago, so going there reminded me a lot of home! We bought some Paddington Bear marmalade, and I'm sure we'll be back to buy some more stuff in the near future.

Vitacura

One evening, we went for a walk along the Mapocho River in Vitacura. The water there is a lot cleaner than it is the city centre, and you have great views of Cerro Manquehue. (I still can't believe that I actually climbed it once!)

Cafés and Restaurants

During my first two weeks here, we were staying in a hostel which had a pretty unpleasant kitchen, so we ended up having to eat out a lot. It wasn't always easy to find somewhere vegan friendly, but we managed to discover some great places...

Sapiens

This café in Barrio Italia is 100% vegan and has some very tasty (and healthy) cakes and hot drinks.

Emporio la Rosa

This ice-cream café next to Parque Forestal is actually where Claudio and I had our first date nearly four years ago, so it was really nice to go back there again!

Wonderland Café

Wonderland Café is a great place to check out if you like Alice in Wonderland, tea, and all things English! Not only is the food really good, but there is also plenty of interesting décor, and even a gift shop.

El Mundo de Dalí Cat Café

The cats seemed quite sleepy and a bit hot and bothered compared to the last time we visited, but it was still so nice to see them all again and to eat some very tasty vegan food, including a version of the traditional Chilean dish pastel de choclo.

Café Forestal

This is a nice café we found near our hostel with plenty of healthy and vegan options.

Primal Food Chile

This is another completely vegan restaurant, which has four locations in Santiago. It has huge portions and so many options that choosing just one was quite hard!

It's been a big change to finally move here, but overall it's been a very positive one so far. There's definitely a lot more going on for me now than there was one month ago! And although I'm looking forward to when we're set up in our own apartment, I'm gradually starting to feel more settled into a routine here.

Next I'll be writing all about our first beach trip of the year, and after that I plan to write semi-regular updates about life in Chile and our travel adventures. I've already been putting together some exciting ideas for trips both near and far that we could take over the coming months. So watch this space!