October 26, 1999
Day 4 Santiago: Organizing and sightseeing
At 10:30 we join a guided city tour at the tourist kiosk near the plaza des armas. The girl that leads it tells us in English about buildings and events. We visit the Cathedral, the Justice Palace, government buildings and several more. The tour takes us to places, rooms in buildings like the diplomatic school, that we would have never visited on our own.
The Brazilian lady in our tour has an interesting observation: at the Justice Palace, lady justice does not wear a blindfold. This is Chile. We see many military guards, also at the government buildings, and our guide needs to ask for permission to take pictures frequently. At the tomb for ‘OHiggins, Chile’s national hero (Irish descent) we get special permission to descend to the sarcophagus: A soldier comes and opens the door for us. Our guide says they might bury Pinochet here later. When Patrick asks her what Chileans think of his possible deportation for Great Britain to Spain for trial, she says Chileans are divided. Some think it is a Chile affair, some think there will never be justice in Chile, so Spain would be good, and some love Pinochet.
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After the tour we walk to the central market and eat lunch of fried fish with rich in a small eatery. We walk a bit along stands with fish and vegetables and buy some for tomorrow. At a supermarket (not as big as Albertsons), we buy further provisions for the next couple of days. Later we drop off our laundry at an "American” laundromat, Rachel goes back later to pick it up. We begin our understanding of a new way of doing things in another culture.
It is a cold morning. After two days of sun, it drizzled all of a sudden and a cold wind blew. Patrick is not feeling good, a light fever, so he stays in our room the rest of the evening.
At 8:30 Aalbrecht call’s us. He is a German cyclist setting out on the same route as us. We learn of him through two Germans on our tour this morning. He is sick and plans to stay a few more days in Santiago. Patrick explains our route and hope to meet him later.
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