Yup, they’re still having aftershocks here. We experienced a few in the high 4 to low 5 magnitude ones. These weren’t enough to cause much damage, just enough to make our hotel sway back & forth & “roll” a bit. As we’ve continued to tour the city we’ve seen more & more pockets of earthquake damage. It’s sad to see piles of rubble where neighborhoods once stood, etc.
Click on the picture below to view some pictures from Santiago:
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Central Market – We love cruising through the open markets when we travel. It always is one of the more memorable aspects of any of the city experiences we have. Places like Barcelona and Rome had these wonderful sections right off of a main street or square where stands upon stands of fresh fruit, seafood, meats, etc. are available. You can eat there, or take the stuff home for later. Thrown in are a few stands of local merchandise that is unique to the city. In Italy, it was Lemoncello. In Barcelona, it was dried/cured hams. It’s always a wonderful experience.
Central Market – We love cruising through the open markets when we travel. It always is one of the more memorable aspects of any of the city experiences we have. Places like Barcelona and Rome had these wonderful sections right off of a main street or square where stands upon stands of fresh fruit, seafood, meats, etc. are available. You can eat there, or take the stuff home for later. Thrown in are a few stands of local merchandise that is unique to the city. In Italy, it was Lemoncello. In Barcelona, it was dried/cured hams. It’s always a wonderful experience.
Santiago has one of these sections, too. It’s called the Central Market. As we prepared to get off the bus to visit it, the bus attendant came to us and started telling us how unsafe it was. We needed to not take stuff out of our packs. We should NEVER count out money in the open. We should be aware of our surroundings at all times. “I am not saying to not go, but be very careful.” With that enthusiastic and encouraging pep talk, we stepped off the bus.
We started walking to the entrance of the market and someone stopped us and asked if we wanted lunch (we had already eaten, so we said “no, thanks anyway”) and then he proceeded to tell me to wear our pack in the front. Don’t take it off. Keep one hand on the pack at all times. “It’s unsafe here. Oh, and no pictures. They will take your camera.” With another “thanks” and a quick moment to move the pack to my front, we dove into the market.
We made it about 3 restaurants deep before I got bumped really hard. A quick check for the existence of my wallet confirmed it was still there. Another hard knock about 5 minutes later had me checking again. And at this point, I basically was walking in this market with one hand in my front pocket on my wallet and one hand clutching the backpack that was slung across my chest. My resolve to delve deeper was shattered with another bump/knock/shove.
“Can we head out?” Yes, I was probably being a wuss, but if I was too worried about our stuff, I was not going to be able to have any fun.
On the way our, we asked someone at the Touristic bus counter when the next bus would arrive. He told us about 15 minutes and as we headed out to wait on the corner, he stopped us and said “no, no, no. Wait here. We have air-conditioning and the corner is not safe.”
Wuss or not, we went to the Central Market and managed to escape with all of our belongings and yet another most memorable experiences of Santiago.
