Santiago's Mercado Central and Centro
Trip Start
Feb 17, 2010
1
53
56
Trip End
Apr 15, 2010
Where I stayed
Santiago, Chile
Sunday, April 11, 2010
I killed time until I could go back to my room to pack up and move to the
other hotel because my roommate Deb was sleeping after coming in around 5 am. There
was a plan for lunch but I think everyone was too full from a late breakfast to
eat anything. I couldn't figure out what to do since the day was broken up
with this move. I was hoping to visit some vineyard, the museum with
pre-Columbian art and walk around to take photos before leaving on Wednesday. The trip is winding down...I have started to say goodbye to
various people as they leave. People who are continuing on the next leg leave
early tomorrow and then I am mostly on my own...I was sort of looking forward to being on my own
as well as to finishing off my accumulated food to lighten my bags.
I had a rather relaxing day: 9 am breakfast, took backpack to other
hotel and then found out we could stay at this one an extra day so I won´t move
until tomorrow am. It turned out that when I was trying to book my wine tour, Anki overheard the desk manager asking whether I would be at the hotel to be picked up there and she thought to ask whether there were rooms available. It turned out there were three and we got them for an extra day.
Around noon I went over to the central
market...a fish market...for lunch with Sarah, Hilary, Andrew and Gemma and some others (Lou, Mel, Dan and James) of our group. I had some
giant mussels and ceviche. I overspent and overate. but the place had a great atmosphere. It was built from iron and glass and sent over from Birmingham, England. It was modeled after a famous market building in England but I have forgotten its name. One of the restauranteurs gave us this information while we were waiting for others in the group to arrive. I think he hoped we would eat at his restaurant - there was a lot of competition to get customers. Waiters stand outside the market and in the aisles of the market hustling customers to get them to eat at their restaurants.
After that I wandered
around a self-guided walking tour around central Santiago - somewhat after the Lonely Planet - and took photos of
interesting buildings, doors, streetlights and lots of reflections in the glass windows. I discovered the Cerro Santa Lucia park but still hadn't found the pre-Columbian art museum. I came back around dinnertime and
roommate Deb and I went to a movie...Shutter Island...too scary and violent but
a good relaxing diversion with my favorite dinner...popcorn. Unfortunately, when we got back, the desk manager gave me the message that my wine tour was canceled. I was not sure I
could schedule another one. I had to decide
what to do the next day since museums were closed and I was tired of eating...but I
would be on my own since the Dragoman continuing group was leaving around 8 am in the morning.
