Spending a few days in Santiago prior to saying goodbye to mainland Chile and flying onto Easter island gave us the opportunity to catch up on things we had missed first time around when the time we had planned was curtailed due to our flight to Santiago being delayed for a few days leaving us stranded in Madrid.

Our first task was to return the spare set of keys to our previous landlord which somehow had found their way into Charles’s bag?We then headed for the main park area where a vernacular railway took you to the highest point in the city from which you had great views over Santiago. En route we came across the museum of art so popped in to have a look. What a great building, you enter into a large open space dominated by a glass atrium with the various galleries leading off, they housed a mix of modern and traditional artwork as well as some amazing sculptures. Having had a dose of culture we stopped off in Santiago’s famous Belles des Artes area for a coffee and the best chocolate cheesecake ever before making our way to the park and joining the back of the queue for the vernacular railway.

It was a long way up and I was glad to step onto good old terra firma but the view was worth it as the city sprawled out below dominated by the mountains acting as a backdrop. At the highest point was a chapel which was used when the pope visited Santiago and the way into the chapel area was flanked by a number of crosses bearing some interesting art work.

We had decided to walk back down through the park as we wanted to visit the Japanese garden that was advertised at the same time experiencing what the park had to offer, big mistake. This was not a park as we know them instead a busy park road wound it’s way back down with the occasional sign directing you to an allocated area that had been cultivated to grow various types of planting. Eventually after a long arduous trek we saw the sign for the Japanese garden, great, as we approached out came the cameras and after taking a few shots of the external landscaping headed for the gate, it was locked! Could you believe it. Taking respite on the nearby wall excitement loomed as the gate opened but no the worker that emerged explained it was closed to the public as it was being renovated. Somehow with the bit of Spanish that he knew Charles explained that we were members of the Japanese garden society and had come especially to see the garden and take photos for an intended article for the society’s magazine.It worked we went through the gate and yes it was definitely undergoing some major change. The architect responsible came to greet us and explained what the original layout looked like and how they were planning to expand it with some hard landscaping and new planting, his biggest difficulty he said was the planting as Chileans like to touch and feel where as the beauty of a Japanese garden is absorbed through the eyes.

On our second day we decided to have a lazy one as we were exhausted from the day before so we walked to the Cultural centre which was only a few blocks from our apartment. It had originally been built to house a Latin American conference but was now a community space housing works of art, a restaurant and cafe but was mainly used by young artistes as a drop in space in which to freely practise their various talents. We watched as a couple practised the Argentine tango without music next to a group of hip hop dancers with music on full blast, in another space a girl dancing with a pyramid made of metal tubes and a modern dance group practised side by side all seemingly lost in their own art.

Our final day and I was on a mission to return to the main square and locate the old man I had seen previously that created pieces of art by painstakingly hammering patterns into pieces of copper, I had promised myself that I would return and buy one. As we entered the square the inevitable sound of music could be heard a Samba band was in full swing inspiring people to get up and dance. We took some time to sit and enjoy the music before resuming my quest. I found my man in his original spot and he took great pride  in explaining which each piece represented. With my chosen piece carefully wrapped and under my arm we went on to visit the cultural history museum where Charles found his own personal guide having struck up a conversation with a man who had worked for a number of years in Edinburgh as an accountant.

Our final visit of the day was to Pinochets secret police headquarters renowned for its imprisonment and torture of people who opposed his regime. An innocuous building on one of the two prettiest streets in the city it looked like any other residential building that surrounded it. Inside there was very little information regarding its history and apart from a desk for the receptionist it was just a shell of a building leaving your own imaginings to conjure up what it must have been like in its day.

Back to the apartment to pack our bags for the last time on mainland Chile. What a spectacular time we have had, it’s had it’s highs and lows but mainly highs and a lesson learnt ie investing time in planning can save time and money but hey

C’est la vie onwards we go.