After a good night’s sleep and a late’ish breakfast in the club lounge we went to purchase our tickets for the red double decker bus ‘hop on and hop off’ bus which does a great job of leaving you at the most important places.
After due thought we decided to do the complete round trip of two hours to see really where it went and then we would go round again and get off where we thought best. After doing the round trip we panned our first stop would leave us outside the National fine arts museum and although Jen and I are not madly keen on museums and as the bus ticket allowed free entrance we went in. It was quite an excellent building built in the early 20th century with lots of little rooms and the guy at the door looked at my camera and said no photos. Some of the display items where made out of different types of stone and then there were a couple of modern art exhibits which left me a little cold. Two bits of wood hanging in the air with the sound of a trumpet going off every minute or so!!!
Thirty minutes later and I had taken a few photos when the security guard was missing we left the building and headed towards the main part of town, we could have used the tourist bus but we wanted to look in the shops etc and also as it was close to 2pm we were getting a little peckish. We said we would look for a European styles restaurant and get a sandwich and then we did the complete opposite and then went in to a packed local Chilean style restaurant which had almost the largest choice of food imaginable. It took about fifteen minutes to digest the contents of the menu large book and then we ordered. Jennifer had the Peruvian chicken and Noel basically shrimps and rice, but they also served chips which seem to be normal here to serve chips with everything.
As mentioned this place was packed and not a large building but with an open kitchen there must have been about twenty staff. The food was very good and no other tourists in sight.
We continued walking and then came to the Plaza De Armas surrounded by some old buildings perhaps mostly government where there were lots of people just hanging around and kids playing in the fountains. Another local pointed at my camera and said watch for pick pockets. From there we continued our walking down to the Mercado Central which is a British design and built in the UK and shipped across and it was assembled during 1872 when President Errazuriz Zanarto decided it should be the new local market and not the art gallery that it was intended to be and so now it is full mostly of fish suppliers and restaurants where the tourists were amassing. By this time it was around four pm and also very hot, we think around 31 centigrade and so we had enough and jumped back on the bus. A stop or two later two other couples joined the bus and sat behind us, apparently they did not know each other, but somehow they both realised they were both from the UK with one couple from Halifax and the other from Chester and they were both going on cruises leaving tomorrow on the same route and they talked so much about where they had been and where they were going and what sort of cabin they had that Jennifer and I could not hear the very interesting commentary being given about the Cityand no doubt they did not hear a thing, but they had been to Santiago and had lunch in the market!
We got back to the Hotel just before six pm and gave up on the idea for a swim as we both needed a shower and a little rest. We were not sure whether to snack it in the Club lounge or go out but when we saw the snacks were the same as last nights the thought of ‘Tony Roma’s ‘came rushing back and soon we were at a table testing some Merlot and watching the people walk by whist Jennifer demolished her New York steak and Noel the short ribs and both were excellent.
We left the restaurant and sat for about an hour people watching and then headed back to the Hotel where we needed to scan our passports and send to the tour agent that is arranging our trip from Puerto Varas in Chile to Bariloche Saint Carlos in Argentina and they needed these photocopies of our passport due to changing regulations. Perhaps they want to capture us to exchange for Prince William in the Falklands, anyway we shall see what happens now the relations between UK and Argentina are almost at an all-time low and so know I will start wearing my cap with the OZ Kangaroo badge on it and hope they don’t think that we are Brits…
Tomorrow we fly down to Puerto Montt and then by Taxi to Puerto Varas
