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South America 2024, Day 1: Santiago, Day 1

Central Santiago

This is it, my 1st day in South America!  I landed in the morning, so it really was my 1st day.  After landing at the airport, I took the airport bus to the subway, then took the subway to my stop.  From there, it was about a 5-minute walk to my B&B.  Before my trip, I had used Google Maps Street View to diligently learn what I would see when getting out of the subway.  I had read so much about crime in South America that I wanted to look like I knew exactly where I was going.  Over the course of my trip, I felt foolish because I never felt unsafe at all.  I just took normal precautions and always made sure to be aware of my surroundings.

My B&B was quite charming.  It’s housed in a mansion built in 1929 as the home of a prominent Chilean explorer and cartographer.  Everything is brightly painted.  Artwork and maps fill the walls of the hallways.  It’s located on a tree-lined street, centrally located in Santiago.  What a find!

Plaza de Armas

Monument to the Indigenous People is a major landmark on Plaza de Armas. It was unveiled in October 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus reaching the Americas.

After resting up for a bit at the B&B, I was ready to hit the town!  I began my exploration of southern South America on Plaza de Armas, the square at the heart of Santiago.  The square dates back to the mid-16th century, shortly after the Spanish began their conquest of Chile.  (Okay, here comes a little history.)  In the early 19th century, Chileans known as Patriots, favoring independence, began a war against the Royalists, who wanted Chile to remain in the Spanish Empire.  They were able to do this because Spain was preoccupied by the invasion of Napoleonic forces I learned about on my 1st day in Spain.  (Isn’t it interesting how world history can be so intertwined?)  In 1818, Chile declared its independence from Spain.

Casa Colorada reminded me the teeniest bit of the Alamo in San Antonio, especially as the Chilean flag looks so similar to the flag of Texas. Its name comes from its colorful red façade. Built in 1769, the house is now occupied by Museo de Santiago, a history museum.
Men playing chess on Plaza de Armas.
Monument to Pedro de Valdivia, who founded Santiago in 1541. Valdivia named the city Santiago after Saint James, the patron saint of Spain.
The colorful monument to the capital. As colorful as South America itself, embellished with cultural motifs.
The Neoclassical Municipalidad de Santiago (City Hall), built in 1785, has Renaissance touches that were added in the late 19th century after damage caused by a fire. I noticed the rainbow flag flying on the right to celebrate Pride Month, commemorated in Chile in November.
At the center of Plaza de Armas stands the Freedom of Latin America monument, showing an allegorical woman representing Freedom breaking the chains of an indigenous woman.

Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago

The cathedral sits on the site of a series of past cathedrals that were destroyed by earthquakes.

Construction on the Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago, Chile’s premier cathedral, began in 1748 and was finally completed in 1906.

The cathedral’s central nave.
The cathedral’s main altar.
The Chapel of the Holy Sacrament.

Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art

An anthropomorphic sculpture from the San Agustín culture of Colombia. The sculpture is estimated to be from the 1st to 5th centuries.

The Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino (Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art) was the highlight of my 1st day of sightseeing.  It exhibits objects from before the 16th century and from what we now call Latin America.

Cute! Músico y guerrero, these figures are from the Jama-Coaque culture, who lived in what’s now Ecuador. Music and warfare were interrelated parts of the culture. It’s estimated that these figures were created sometime between the 6th century BC and the 4th century.
The Guard (500 BC-500), a ceramic statue that typically would have been placed in the tomb of a powerful person near pre-Columbian Mexico’s western coast.
A collection of Mayan objects from the area in and around the Yucatán Peninsula.
A killer cat. This feline was a typical object found in the tombs of the Moche culture of northern Peru.
Textile art from the pre-Columbian Andes.
Wooden statues that were placed on top of tombs in ancient cemeteries of the Mapuche people. The Mapuche are the largest indigenous group in Chile.
Pre-Columbian methods for making textiles for clothing are still in use today.

La Moneda Palace

La Moneda Palace is Chile’s presidential palace. (This is actually the rear view of La Moneda.)

La Moneda gets its name from its original use as the colony’s mint.  It became Chile’s presidential palace in 1845, but coins were still produced there until 1929.

If you’re familiar with the flag of Texas, you can see why I was confused the whole time I was in Chile. The 2 flags are very similar. This large flag was installed along the boulevard just south of La Moneda to celebrate Chile’s bicentennial.

Pretty cool 1st day, don’t you think?

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]

Related posts:

South America 2024 Food Diary, Day 1 San Francisco 2016, Day 4, Part 2 The 2016 BSFBB Awards The 2017 BSFBB Awards

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