Easter Island: June 2023: Day 6: Santiago

Easter Island

June 2023: Day 6: Santiago

Buffet at Hotel Plaza Santiago.

Started off decent.

Actually kind of disappointing.

View from the room.

Iglesia de San Francisco.

Fuente Neptuno.

Neptuno y Anfitrite.

Painted statues of pugs.

Liguria Bar Restaurante.

More walking.

So much bread.

Centre Gabriela Mistral.

Vast semi-enclosed lobby.

Waiting in line for french fries at Papachecos.

Inside Liguria Bar Restaurante.

Massive sandwich.

Alicia enjoying one last meal in Chile.

Crab stew.

The first-floor bar is low and dark vs. the second floor bar.

Who would have though tto use drawer knobs as decoration?

Close-up of the menu.

Graffiti left over from the most recent revolution.

Big wall separating the hotel from the street.

And the hotel.

Hyundai Staria minivans come with a 6-speed manual (!).

LATAM lounge inside terminal 2.

Salad bar.

Beef, cured meats, breadsticks...

View of the buffet and the bar.

Meeting table?

Coffee bar near the entrance.

The lobby of the LATAM Lounge.

One last picture inside the terminal.

Back on the plane. Hooray again for upgrades.

Dinner menu.

Drink menu.

Warm nuts.

Salmon wasn't bad. And a decent salad for once.

As one of the newest hotels inducted into Marriot's Le Meridien brand, the Hotel Plaza Santiago bears little indication of being a Marriott. Previously a Crown Plaza (IHG) hotel, the Hotel Plaza honestly seems mostly untouched from its past life, aside from all the old branding being removed and not much in the way of new branding. Sadly this theme continued into the breakfast buffet, which was best described as meh.

Did a nice tour of central Santiago with Diego, one of the guides found through GuruWalk. He was solid on both in terms of history, politics, and geography, and had an appreciation both of the rapidly evolving political situation (relatively speaking) the past few years in Chile as well as an appreciation of local cuisine-- sadly did not have time to join him on the food tour he offered right after ours. ;_;

Hard to say too much of Santiago is particular picturesque, but Fuente Neptuno and Centre Gabriela Mistral both were fun places to take pictures and take in some of the local culture. Some translation mistakes meant lunch at Liguria Bar Restaurante wasn't quite what was expected, but Alicia's sandwich was massive and tasty, and the crab stew was rich. Daylight also provided a sightly better view of the hotel and the high walls protecting it, and then a few hours later the ride to the airport was done in what would be an impossible sight in the US-- a new Hyundai Staria minivan, complete with 6-speed manual transmission (!).

Good thing we left slightly earlier than necessary for the airport, as again traffic was worse than predicted. Clearing immigration and whatnot wasn't too bad, and the LATAM VIP Lounge inside Terminal 2 of Santiago Airport is massive at 43,000 square feet. Wasn't exactly hungry or thirsty so can't speak too much as to the food (which seemed to be decent), but it was spacious and very stylish.

Upgrades went through on the return flight too, so was very nice to be able to lie-flat and sleep on both the flight inbound a week ago as well as the outbound tonight. Food was somewhat tastier tonight on United 846 than on the inbound (UA 847) as well, maybe the SCL outstation catering is better? Sadly what was otherwise an excellent flight was marred by a broken in-flight entertainment system (IFE) affecting the whole plane...