Santiago de Chile
I…read morespent the month of January , 2015, in Chile. During my stay I spent some time in Viña del Mar, La Serena, and a couple of weeks in Santiago.
While in Santiago I rented a furnished apartment with "Apart Santa Lucia."
They run several buildings in the area and I was assigned to an apartment on the 11th floor of the building located at Carmen 110. Parking was available for an additional fee ( $ 3.00 USD ) per night.
There is another "Apart Santa Lucia" building at San Isidro 45.
The daily rate was somewhere between $ 56.00 and $ 58.00 USD.
The main room of the apartment was facing the bright , hot , Santiago sun.
The only curtain on the window was a sheer white see through curtain that did nothing to block out the warm Rays of the Santiago sun. Did I mention that it was HOT ? This accommodation will never do, I thought , I'll die here.
Management was contacted and a young Portuguese speaking employee arrived who was able to solve the problem as there were no other apartments available at the time. He rigged up a make-shift canvass and hooked it up behind the sheer curtains to block out the hot Santiago sun.
No air conditioning in the apartment but there was a fan. One of the three legs on the fan ( a stand up fan ) was broken preventing the oscillating fan from oscillating. I then used one of the ottomans in the room to balance the fan so that it would stand straight up and oscillate. Wasn't that great ?
Now, on to the next problem. The two light bulbs in the front room were missing. One of the two light bulbs in the kitchen was missing. Both light bulbs were present in the bedroom where one presumably sleeps with the lights off ! The bedroom bulbs were larger than the other bulbs in the place so there would be no switching the bulbs around. The bathroom was missing one of the two bulbs in the room. All in all , it was a little dark in the apartment due to an insufficient supply of light bulbs. Of course, being a guy, I'm not afraid of the dark :) Nevertheless , Contacted management and was told , no problem, the fan would be replaced and new light bulbs would be purchased when the stores opened up. Huh ? Ya don't have any in stock ?
As the days went by, no new fan, no new light bulbs. So, I broke open my piggy bank, removed a few pesos, and went to the store and purchased the requisite number of light bulbs. TA da , "Let there be light" , some one famous once said, and Voila ! There was light !
All grievances aside, the stay was a very pleasant one and the price was very affordable. The Santa Lucia Metro station is nearby for ease of movement around the city if traveling without an auto. Lovely Santa Lucia Hill is just down the street. Plenty of people walking around the neighborhood from dawn to after dark. If you like people watching, this is the place. There are 5 million people in Santiago and I swear , half of them are in and around the Santa Lucia area.
There is an abundance of night life in the area with bars, restaurants, and stores all over the place. If you are lucky you might even catch sight of a
"Stray dog" ( perro callejero ) strolling down the street. Ok, I'm kidding.
Stray dogs and Latin America go together like ham and cheese.
Seriously though, the apartment was more than adequate for my stay, conveniently located to many tourist attractions and not too far from a Lider grocery store where food can be purchased for home preparation. The apartment had a refrigerator , microwave , dinnerware, etc. All the comforts of home away from home. Except, no Wi-FI and no T V. Queeee ?
But who watches T V when on vacation anyway ? Te amo Santiago !
I'll be back...
