A Day in Santiago

After barely staying awake until 7pm last night, my humans were up and about early and ready for our morning tour of the city.

**The Presidential Palace. Liesl, our lovely guide, is amused by one of my many witty comments.**

So… the careful observer will notice the Chilean Presidential Palace is not especially palatial in design. I mean, it’s nice, but it’s not as grand as some. That’s because the palace was originally the Chilean Mint. There’s an amusing back story: the Chileans hired an Italian architect to design their Presidential Palace at the same time the Argentinians hired him to design their Mint… and the plans were mixed up on the boat-ride across the Atlantic. Nobody noticed until the buildings were complete. I can only assume the Mint in Buenos Aires is espectacular.

**A plan of the city. Since my humans are mostly useless, we will never know the exact year this map represents.**

It is Furperson’s understanding that this verdigris-coloured chap was the first Marxist elected to high office in Latin America. He was killed in the coup d’état led by Augusto Pinochet on September 11, 1973. There are rumours the CIA may have shown some support for this possibly poor choice of replacement. Funnily enough, there are no statues of Augusto anywhere that Furperson could find. Please note the press conference, presumably about my visit, going on in the background.

**The black necked swan** **(Cisne de cuello negro). And the *biggest* koi my female human has ever seen. I have to say, neither fish nor fowl were as tasty as I’d hoped.**

[Note from the female human: one can only assume the koi are there to keep the swan population under control.]

**The church of San Francisco, built in 1572, and now the oldest building in Santiago. Lots of earthquakes means Santiago has an exciting mix of old and new buildings.**

After our tour my humans and I had lunch in one of the beautiful courtyards in Bellavista, one of the trendy food and wine oriented areas in Santiago. After this my male human fell into what is apparently known as a “meat coma”.

After said “coma” we ventured into the depths of Lastarria where we found a delightful wine bar called Bocanariz. Highly recommended.

**Map of the wine regions of Chile. My humans attempted a new take on a vertical tasting.**

**The graffiti of Lasterria. Apparently it’s been a thing since 2019, when the locals got fed up with ever-increasing economic inequality.**

Amusingly, there was a strike/protest being held on the streets of Lastarria when we departed for the airport this morning. Viva la revolucion!