Chile: The Highlights

I wrote about what I did in Chile everyday, but never really described the overall impression of Santiago as a city or Chile as a country. When deciding to book my ticket for spring break, nearly 10 days, I knew it would be ‘short’ relative to other abroad experiences but that’s how vacations will be the rest of my life. I wouldn’t take back any of the money I spent and feel like the time was enough to become well-acquainted with what the city had to offer.

The two large “cerros,” or hills, define the city of Santiago. Called Cerro Santa Lucia and Cerro San Cristobal, both are full of parks and gardens the entire way up, and people of all ages are climbing at all points during the day. You can climb or pay $1 to take a funicular up, kind of like a ski lift! Unfortunately, Santiago has a huge pollution problem so although the city is bordered in mountains, you only really see fog on weekdays. On the weekends when there are less commuters in vehicles, the mountains are more clearly delineated.

At the top of Cerro San Cristobal, overseeing Santiago and its outskirts

As a working journalist abroad, Elizabeth is very well-versed in Chile’s current events. She explained to me how education is very expensive and that there are a ton of flaws in public education. One visible tradition is that college juniors and seniors steal the items of the entire freshmen class, and haze them with paint, seafood, eggs and more and won't give the underclassmen their bags back until they can on the streets for coins. What a crazy tradition, especially considering our view of hazing like this in the U.S.!

One of the freshmen canning on the streets (she gave me permission to take this photo)

Literature and artisan culture are strong values, and it shows. There are fewer museums than Buenos Aires, but because of that - they are all phenomenal. Every important location has a "Centro Cultural" component with not only a store or vendors, but also exhibits to learn about it. 

The Museum of Memory & Human Rights taught me about the dictatorship of Pinochet and Chile's No! movement and its rich history. Here, the yes and no campaigns to leave Pinochet in office had 15 minutes of TV airtime to produce campaigns. We watched the spots at the museum, as well as watching the No! documentary movie. 

The American community abroad is well-acquainted and loving life. Just like you meet a community when you move to a new American city, all of the English speakers find each other abroad and become friends. I met some of Elizabeth's friends from The Santiago Times, we constantly hung out with her Canadian friend Alicja (pronounced Alicia, but spelled the Polish way) and I met a few people throughout the trip and we kept in touch because we all speak English. It was a great week of traveling and next destination: Europe!

Alicja, me and Elizabeth having dinner at Patio Bellavista, a beautiful outdoor plaza