On the 30th of Dec 2000 we went to the nearby
subway station called Escuela Militar ( what else after several years of
Pinochet ?) and bought two bargain tickets for 10 rides. This lasted
until the end of our trip. It costs us about $140 a ride the regular
ticket per ride is about $190. On the first day we visited the State
Tourist Office and got some maps of the city and subway map. They
had various maps of individual regions, senior discounts at hotels, boating,
kayaking and fishing guides for all the regions. It was close to
the Tobalaba station. After that we got back in the subway and got
off at the Universidad de Chile station close to downtown. Then we
walked a lot. We crossed the pedestrian mall many times during our
morning walk. At the central plaza of the city, called (what else)
Plaza de Armas, there was an old church being renovated, there was an airplane
at the center. One can apply for an American Express Card and get
a chance to win the plane they said. We went to their central post
office and mailed some picture post cards. Here they charged only
$150 per card to go to the USA. We went to the outdoor market near
the river (Rio Mapuche) and found a great many seafood shops.  Their
eelfish was the largest I have ever seen. Congrego, it is called
in Spanish. It looked like it is most efficiently evolved for filleting
? long tubular body with practically nothing to scale off. We went
into the covered barn like structure called Mercado Municipal and found
it full of vegetable, fish, meat and other shops. There were plenty
of restaurants with mall type seating at the center. We ate at Donde
Augusto restaurant. Their fish in seafood sauce was excellent but
the portions were very large. We had also ordered the chilean salad
of onions and tomatos, but later we were glad they forgot to bring it.
After a few beers we were ready to tackle the pedestrian mall again.
The people were out in big crowds that day. Since we had already
seen purse-snatching episodes at this mall, Ebi had her purse strap across
her body and I had shifted my wallet to the front pocket. We could
see police on a few overhead watching posts. These were like deer-hunting
platforms ? except that these were built on utility poles along the walk
and held a police guy with a walkie-talkie. Apparently they see the
purse snatching and convey this to all the ground police so that the criminal
can be chased and caught. We had seen a complete episode like that
at home on (satellite ) TV.  We
had an event free walk and took some photos. We went to the palacio
national ( also called Moneda) and saw a large statue of Salvadore Allende
outside the building. It was strange that they put up this statue
during the tenure of Pinochet. Allende has his back to the treasury
and stockmarket buildings. We walked into the palacio nacional, as
it is now open to the public. It is a pretty nice building with a
central plaza (like one would expect in a Spanish style building) and many
statues in it. There were army guys guarding some of the private
doors; but for that it looked quite ordinary for a building that had been
bombed during the coup of 1973. The temperature outside was very
hot. We stopped in a convenience store and bought water bottles.
We were using about 2 liters of mineral water in plastic bottles per day.
Later we found out it was 28°C. We went to the Cedro Santa Lucia,
the downtown hill. We sat under a shade tree and watched children
frolic in the water fountain. They were in and out, had water fights
and in general a good time. We climbed to the top, steps all the
way and had a great view of the southern end of the town buildings.
Around 3 pm we decided that the weather was very hot and took the subway
home for a nap. When the balcony window was open we could hear all
the constructions of highrise apartments going up all around in the Las
Condes area. We watched some TV and then took a nap.
After 8 pm we went shopping to a grocery store on the other side and brought
home dinner, milk and breakfast bread for the next day.
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