It took us over 17 hours to arrive at Santiago, via Pearson International Airport in Toronto. Thanks to Richard's gold status with Air Canada, we were able to relax and enjoyed the hospitality provided by Maple Leaf Lounge before both flights. Still, it was unbearably long for me as I could not sleep on the plane and my legs got swollen. Definitely looking forward to the business class for our return legs home 👏 😀.
We dropped off the luggage at the hotel and hit Santiago's streets right away as we only had one day to check out the city before flying out to Santa Cruze in Bolivia tomorrow. We were amazingly energized given that we have not had any good sleep for close to 24 hours. Santiago is a good city to explore on foot as it has a very large central section that is closed to the vehicular traffics and only allowed for pedestrians. Like many well established cities, all architectures require renovation and refurbishment. There were some nice colonial buildings but they are in no way come close to some of the better preserved ones we had seen in other places and therefore, making this city rather bland and lacking of a signature or iconic symbol.
Chile is well known for its wonderful seafood (think Chilean sea bass or abalone) but we didn't expect their version of the king crab (called centolla). Compared to the Vancouver version, it's much cheaper and slightly smaller in size). After checking out the fish market, we ate at one of the many seafood restaurants next to it. Besides the king crab, we also had wonderful seafood sopa. The only disappointment is the Chilean version of cerviche is not as good as the one we tasted in Peru. It comes in minced fish instead of whole pieces. We will have to try this dish again to find out if it's just this restaurant style or not. Considering all the seafood we ordered, this meal ended up costing the four of us about CAD$220 which is very reasonable.
Another famous drink we sampled is Pisco Sour. It brings back the wonderful memory of Peru. Btw, both Peru and Chile claim they invented Pisco Sour and their national drink! They went to the extent of renaming their towns to Pisco Sour!
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