Things to do in Santiago, Chile — when there is food

So technically, for the past week and a half, I’ve been on spring break. Well, more like the past two and a half weeks. Basically, since pretty much March 9. See technically, I was supposed to start spring break on March 13, right after my exams. But then, on Sunday night, around 9 pm, just as I was about to sit down to a long night of attempting to study for my final high school math exam, we got a call from my school. Apparently, a parent was being tested for COVID-19, and so school would be shut down tomorrow. A mixture of panic and nervous excitement ensued in our grade group chat, until we got a followup email about half an hour later announcing that the rest of our exams would be canceled, and school would be closed for the rest of the week. I was ecstatic, because back then it was exciting that school was closed, the virus hadn’t officially infected thousands back then yet. COVID-19 cases were still sparse in the city back then, so this seemed like a blessing. Seriously. I spent a good ten minutes screaming and jumping up and down.

But anyways, back to Chile. So my friend and I left for Chile that Thursday afternoon as planned, excited for two weeks of traveling through Chile, then Argentina. When we left, things were only starting to get bad. We discovered whilst sitting in JFK that the Met was shutting down, a sign of things to come. We didn’t know yet that Argentina would order people to quarantine themselves for two weeks on arrival the night we got to Santiago. One by one, countries began closing their borders, first Argentina then Bolivia, where we planned to divert our trip, then finally Chile, so that our trip itinerary was altered, then shortened so that we left the day before Chile closed its borders. But I’m still fortunate. I still got somewhat of a vacation, albeit much more abridged then I planned on it being. And as I’m typing this, I’m sitting in my house, fully stocked with copious amounts of food(including four packets of oreos, thanks Dad), hand sanitizer, and unread books. My parents still have their jobs, unlike the millions of people who’ve had to file for unemployment. So I’m still pretty lucky. Plus, I had quite the time in Chile.

So upon getting off the red-eye at about 6 in the morning, we then spent a delightful hour alternating between watching tik-toks and Netflix whilst waiting for my friend’s mom, who was flying in separately. We then took an hour-long car ride to our hotel, during which we learned that Chile, and Santiago, has had civil unrest since October 2019, something none of us knew because we all stupidly didn’t bother to do any research before going. So that was an interesting twist in our plans. But upon arriving to our hotel, the Singular, we were greeted with a tray of chocolates, which was strangely exactly what I needed.

I had the white chocolate one, which turned out to be filled with a delightful passion fruit puree. We then went up to our room, which was really nice, albeit slightly small.

The best part of room was definitely the view from the balcony. Also the rainforest shower, which I sadly forgot to take a picture of, but I promise was quite nice.

After changing out of our plane clothes, we then ventured down for technically our second breakfast of the day. The hotel serves breakfast from 7-10 am, and they have a decent spread of standard breakfast foods, from pastries to fruit and avocado. I wasn’t too hungry, but I couldn’t resist their blueberry muffins, which were really good, as they had that crisp crust that I like on top of muffins that gave way to a moist and fluffy interior that’s generously sprinkled with berries.

After the quick snack, we then ventured out to explore. We spent some time wandering the streets, including a tiny flea market, nearby, as Lastarria, the area the hotel is in, is supposed to be very “hip and cool”, and has lots of street art.

We then went to the Chilean National Museum of Fine Arts. We were surprised by all the graftti that was scrawled all over the exterior of the building. There had been a lot of graffiti everywhere, but it was slightly surprising to see it even on this imposing museum.

The inside of the building however, seemed completely undamaged by the protests, albeit sort of empty, despite admission being free. The main area has lots of natural lighting, as well as truly beautiful artwork, particularly paintings and sculptures. I also appreciated that they acknowledged the graffiti and had a board asking visitors what they think they should do about the graffiti on the exterior' of the building. So if you’re ever in Santiago, I would recommend coming here.

Afterwards, we walked to the Chilean National Zoo, purely because my mom loves zoos and discovered it was nearby. And on the way, we passed even more cool street art.

Unfortunately, you they only take Chilean pesos for Chilean National Zoo tickets, so we were only able to go on the funicular. The funicular doesn’t have seats, so you can move around your box easily and see from all sides as you rise above the city.

Oddly enough, the cable car stops briefly to let people off at the zoo.

Once you reach the top, you get truly stunning views of the city below.

To our surprise, there were also a couple shops and cafes catering to tourists, as well as the Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception on San Cristóbal Hill, which we actually didn’t realize we were headed towards.

On a side note, we noticed a lot of cute cats and dogs on our little adventure, which reminded me of when I visited Turkey and Greece a couple years back.

After our exciting descent down courtesy of the funicular, we decided to head to lunch.

We headed off to Aquí Está Coco, which is one of the best seafood restaurants in Santiago. We all ordered really tasty and refreshing mint and ginger lemonades(which is saying something, because I normally HATE ginger). As an amuse bouche, were given tiny cups of fish soup, which were extremely flavorful, albeit a little too salty for my taste.

Next came some standard warm bread rolls, along with some olive oil that was infused with vegetables and herbs.

We also ordered two starters to share: the crispy calamari with tartar sauce, and seafood empanadas. I love any type of fried seafood, and I really enjoyed the fried calamari, as the breading was crispy and the calamari was tender, a very difficult feat to accomplish. The accompanying tartar sauce was pretty tasty, but with the fried calamari it definitely felt a little bit too rich. I definitely enjoyed the seafood empanadas more, as the pastry was crisp on the outside, with a slight snap when you broke it apart, but the crust inside was tender, giving way to a still steaming filling. I especially enjoyed the filling, as the seafood inside was perfectly cooked, and balanced out well with the fried exterior.

For my main course, I had the hake with lemon herb butter sauce and vegetables. The white, flaky fish was truly the star, as helped along by the sauce, the fish practically melted in my mouth. However, the vegetables were a bit underwhelming, as they weren’t fully cooked and brought the dish down as a whole. But I will say, you do come here for the fish, and on that front, Aquí Está Coco definitely delivers.

After a quick nap back at the hotel, my friend and I decided to go out for a quick afternoon snack. Namely ice cream, at the place across the street from our hotel, Emporio La Rosa. I had the banana and honey, as well as the dulce de leche, and I thoroughly enjoyed both. The banana and honey was more icy than creamy, but I appreciated that you could taste the natural banana flavor. I preferred the rich, very decadent dulce de leche, with its strong sugary, caramelized flavors that had a slightly burnt undertone that cut through a bit of the sweetness. My favorite part was getting to eat my ice cream sitting outside, in one of those fancy glass sundae bowls I haven’t seen in years.

After another brief walk, we retreated to the hotel lobby(so as to not disturb our mothers, who were both sleeping in our rooms). After some amount of time, we discovered that the reason our hotel’s blinds were closed was because there were protests happening right outside our door. It’s a strange juxtaposition, people protesting their government while we’re here on vacation, trying to ignore it as much as possible. Anyways, we decided to have dinner in the hotel, and I had the Singular sandwich, which consisted of buttery and crunchy brioche, slightly watery crab, fresh mixed greens, creamy aioli, and salty, crispy serrano ham. Honestly, not a bad meal.

After dinner, we decided to just call it a night, we were all pretty exhausted by then, and we had another long day ahead of us, as we had to get up at 3:45 for our flight the next day. While my time in Santiago was brief, it wss quite the experience, and I definitely wished we had had more time to explore this incredibly fascinating city.