Day two - Tuesday, April 18

We have just the one day to take a look at Santiago. After breakfast in the lovely hotel courtyard garden, 

we go downtown on the very full metro and get out near the presidential palace - a white low-slung building, which lies well back from the busy thoroughfare protected by barriers and a group of guards in ceremonial gear. The street is teeming with people maneuvering around squatting vendors with their wares spread out on the ground. Consulting a map discreetly we head towards the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. The collection of ceramics, stone and bronze figures is impressive.

A darkened room houses a collection of textiles in surprisingly vivid colors

and down several stairs we find more ancient sculptures, ornaments and tools.

The collection is so well displayed, not too overwhelming, and with plenty of space to move around and observe. One of the best we’ve seen.

Santiago has a real smog problem, but when we emerge into the sunlight we decide to risk taking a funicular 

up the hill to the statue of the Immaculate Conception, from where you may see the snow-capped peaks of the Andes on a clear day. 

Unfortunately, this is no clear day after all, but we do admire the spread of the city until our eyes begin to smart from the air.

Then it’s time to eat and we grab a cab to Le Flaubert, an old French salon de thé and restaurant near our hotel, where the food as well as the ambience is quite splendid with rows of interesting photos on the walls- here's a young Brigitte Bardot.

I order a salad with shrimp sautéed in Pernod

and finish up with a perfect crème brulée.

In the late afternoon Oswaldo meets a long-time Chilean friend, Manuel Corrada, who takes us all to dinner at Baco, a busy and fun restaurant nearby, which has a big sign, saying, in Spanish, “No wifi – talk to each other!”

Then we go home to pack and have an early night for the taxi comes at 7am to take us to the airport.