"Football Mad?!?" a Santiago Travel Page by Assenczo

Maybe surprising but Santiago appears to be a city manageable on foot despite its population of five million or so. The places of interest are grouped along the raging river called Maipu. Starting form the Plaza de Armas area and moving up though leafy parks in the shadows of San Cristobal Hill one can easily reach Providencia, the area where the nouveau-riche have their houses. The older section around Belles Artes building can surprise you with gems such as this one. Monumental fountains are never far apart. Continuing upstream passing through newer and newer sections of basically the same river park the inquisitive finds himself among the splashy opulence of the Radisson hotel and the likes of skyscrapers and monstrous shopping malls in the making.

Allende was portrayed as a tragic figure in the hands of the Anglo-American imperialists back then in my socialist Motherland. Nowadays, he has been taken care of with a bran new monument of his own in front of the La Moneda, where the rumour has it, he was killed. Amongst his fellow presidents, significant enough to be turned into bronze along the same square, he seems to be the most popular. Pinochet has been having trouble lately in Chile and previously in Europe but appears to be intact. I wonder whether he is going to end up on a pedestal too.