Santiago, Chile: Provedencia & Bellavista

January 2, 2011


After a 9.5 hour overnight flight from DFW, we arrived in Santiago. Completely exhausted, but also anxious to explore. Unfortunately, it took us a while to get out of the airport.  For some reason, I always think I'll outsmart everyone else in the airport and make my way to the shortest customs line. This plan didn't exactly work out in my favor this time around, and I wound up waiting in line for over an hour. After that painful experience, we arranged a taxi for the 30 minute ride into the city.


 Since it was Sunday morning, there was hardly any traffic and the ride into town was quick and easy. The terrain was similar to other similarly situated west-coast cities; dry earthy hills interspersed with fresh, lush vegetation. Coming from the northern hemisphere in early January where all the plants were brown and dormant, it was surprising to see everything looking so green and vibrant.  Our hotel was located on a quiet side street in the neighborhood of Provedencia. As we checked into our rooms at Hotel Bonaparte, everyone seemed satisfied with the choice of lodging (see my review on TripAdvisor).

Courtyard at Hotel Bonaparte

Since it was nearing lunchtime, we quickly showered and re-convened to head out to do a little walking and find a place to grab lunch. Le Flaubert was highly recommended by our guide book as a moderately priced lunch place, so we decided to give it a go. Similar to our hotel, Le Flaubert was just off the beaten path on a tree-lined side street. It didn't look like much from the front, but we were quickly welcomed inside and seated at a table on their quiet outdoor patio. The menu was presented to us on a chalkboard, which added a another layer of complexity to ordering lunch in a foreign country. Considering we had just endured an incredibly long plane ride, we decided to treat ourselves with a bottle of wine. After contemplating our options, and debating the definition of foie gras (later revealed to be duck liver), we selected the foie gras pâté which I thought was listed as CLP $ .1500 (about USD $3), but turns out it was actually CLP $ 15.000 (more like  USD $30). Whoops! At any rate, it was some first class pâté, and now we could check that one off the list as an exotic food that we'd tried.  For the main course, I ordered corvina flaubert, which translates as "El Flaubert Seabass" - apparently the house special, and absolutely AMAZING. Arguably the best meal I ate the entire trip. The fish was cooked to perfection and topped with little shrimp, avocado, and a buttery sauce. My dining companions ordered the shrimp curry and the beef tenderloin (sliced and seasoned with peppercorns and rosemary).  We all left feeling extremely satisfied, but yet very, very tired!

Chalkboard Menu

Corvina Flaubert

After a much needed nap, we reconvened at 7pm to consider our options for the remainder of our first day in Chile. Since the summer solstice is in late December in the Southern hemisphere, it stayed light until 9pm or later each night we were there. Even though we had slept away most of the afternoon, there was still time to do a bit more exploring. So we headed over to Barrio Bellavista and Cerro San Cristóbal for some city views and an afternoon stroll. Our taxi driver ended up being the perfect tour guide for our evening adventure, and we enjoyed chatting him up and practicing our Spanish-speaking skills. Our driver took us to the top of San Cristobal Hill, which was packed with Santiagoans enjoying their Sunday afternoons meandering along the pathways, riding bikes, and spending time with their families. At the top, there were several vendors selling  food and other goodies. I couldn't resist getting a package of mani confitado (candied peanuts). The drink of choice for the season seemed to be Mote con Huesillo which was arguably one of the most interesting drinks I've ever sampled in my life. It certainly would have been helpful to have the Wikipedia article handy, because we were completely baffled as to what it might be until we actually tried it (and even then, certain ingredients were ambiguous). But basically its a sweet peach drink with corn (?) on the bottom, and a dried peach with the pit included.  The trip to San Cristobal Hill was a wonderful opportunities to see Chileans at play, and the fact that there were few, if any, tourist to be found made it even more authentic.

Mote con Huesillo

La Virgen atop Cerro San Cristobal

With the remaining daylight hours, we wondered around the Bellavista neighborhood, where hordes of young people were enjoying Escudo beer at the various outdoor bars that lined the street. Further along, we found a cute little artesian market and a collection of hip bars and restaurants. We decided to stop for dinner at one of the places that offered outdoor seating, and quickly attempted to get attention of the waitress before happy hour ended to order a couple beers. Dinner wasn't anywhere near as impressive as lunch, but tasty all the same. I ordered a vegetable salad with an interesgting combination of asparagus, tomato, hear of palm (very popular in Chile), corn, avocado, and cabbage. We also ordered a plate of French fries for the table that arrived with a nice big fried egg plopped on top of it [perfect, just what we wanted!]. A little more wine, and it was time to catch a taxi and call it a night after a great first day in South America. //

Typical Chilean Salad