Nov 15 -19, 2016: Chile  

Nov. 18, 2016.  La Casa Roja, Santiago, Chile.

• Last full day in South America.  Started off with a leisurely breakfast in the hostel (another perk when you book a private room).  Then hoofed it to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos - a huge, stark structure with three floors of letters, films, photographs, prisoner memorabilia, unfortunately all in Spanish.  Allende's fall , Pinochet's rise, in excruciating detail.  Similar in some ways to the holocaust museum I visited in Jerusalem.

• Nearby, the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural: mostly stuffed animals, but a very nice whale skeleton illuminated alternately with red and blue lights.  Another Incan boy discovered on a mountain near Santiago, and a few items from Rapa Nui.

• Lunch at the Ocean Pacific, crammed full of nautical stuff, waiters in sailor outfits, and a wonderful meal of crab and other seafood in a cheese sauce, downed with a copa of Sauvignon Blanc.  Delicious and filling.

• Walked past the Palacio de la Moneda, where there was a major protest, with police quelling it with fire hoses.  Today most of the plaza was blocked off.  

• Tried to visit the national bank of Chile, but it too was off limits.  

• Next a visit to Londres 38, one of the four main torture and detention centers in Santiago during the Pinochet dictatorship - and the only one not subsequently destroyed.  Between September 1973 and September 1974, 96 people - considered opponents of the dictatorship- were killed here by the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA).  Now just an ordinary looking three story home - but if the walls could talk... In front there are cobblestones with the names and ages of the victims - most of them University students.

• On to the zoo, a long walk, but no better way to see a city.  Pretty average zoo, with a couple of surprises: a bongo (!) and a red panda (!).  Also two flamingos getting it on (see below).

• Back down the hill to a bar I had passed on my way to the zoo: "Boston".  Completely packed with twenty somethings and really loud music.  Perfect!  In I go, surely the oldest by a factor of three, found a table, and now typing up these notes.  

• Everybody laughing, screaming, singing along with the songs they know.  Mostly boys and girls at separate tables, but the (Friday) night is young (it is now 6 PM).  Smell of pot quite strong.  After a few curious stares, I'm ignored.  Perfect.  

• My last night in South America - I flew to Quito on Aug 15, three months ago, and I've seen and done so much, it seems much longer.  Regrets?  None really.  I covered a lot of ground, and saw what I wanted to see.  Would I return?  Absolutely.  Next time's list might include Galapagos, Rapa Nui, some long hikes in Peru's Cordilleras, Aconcagua (I seriously want to climb this baby - the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas), Quedabra de Humahuaca, Talampaya, Ischigualasto, some time in Mendoza, Tupungato, Chile's Lake District, Ruta 40 (rent a car), Colombia, and so on. 

• It is now 6:45 - crowd is getting noisier, and boys & girls mixing it up more.  Next table got all excited, insisted on taking my picture; videos of very happy crowd.  Left at 7, walking down street with bars/cafes/drinking establishments on both sides, all packed.  It's Friday!  Will not believe videos I just took walking down the street, of the crowds and performance artists.

• Now at Las Vacas Gordas (best steaks in Santiago), for a rare entrecôte and a copa de vino tinto.  It is now 8:45.  Restaurant is packed.  Only one block from the hostel.  My last full day is rounding out nicely. 

• Steak just arrived.  Ridiculously large, and oh so flavorful.  Managed to eat most of it.  Finally, a postre of a tart with chocolate mousse and raspberries.  Woo woo!

• Everybody talking and smiling, no staring, people dressed up and down (like me: t-shirt and shorts).  I think Santiago is my favorite South American city.