Today is our last day in Santiago. After the great Tours 4 Tips experience yesterday in Valpo, we decided to try the one in Santiago today, this time the “Offbeat” tour, which is supposed to get more into the nitty gritty of the city like a local. The tour met at 10am at the Museo de Bellas Artes. We went through all three of the major city markets including the ones for seafood, meats, and fruits and vegetables. Our guide, Oscar, was a 28 year old professional classical percussionist/tour guide on the side. He gave us recommendations of all of his favorite places to eat.

After all of the markets, we headed off toward the Santiago cemetery. It was HUGE- 2 million people have their final resting places there, including paupers and presidents. The smaller graves were the cheapest and can purchased like property, or if a family doesn’t have the money yet, temporarily rented out on a year by year basis until they come up with the funds.

Families have also competed over time to have the biggest and best mausoleums. Some of the standouts included a Mayan/Aztec palace,  an egyptian temple, and even The Apple Store look-a-like.

After the tour finished, we went to eat lunch at one of the places recommended by our guide called Tio Willy in Mercado Central. I had grilled Chilean sea bass with a side of potatoes with mayonnaise (Sea bass was delicious, but the potatoes with mayonnaise were about as good as they sound, no more no less). Alejandro had an eel soup, a typical dish called Caldillo de Congrio. It was delicious! But sorry, we’re still rookies and forgot to take pictures…

After lunch, we walked through the main square of Santiago (Plaza de las Armas). It was surrounded on all sides by beautiful buildings.

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I dragged him to the top of Santa Lucia Hill for some magnificent views of the surrounding city with the mountains in the background.

The rest of the evening, we just hung out at the hostel and did some catching up on our blog as well as hotel reservations. Tomorrow we head on to the next leg of our trip, down south to an island called Chiloé!