We were all feeling pretty wretched when we got up at about midday. A wash, a shave and a cheese roll made me feel marginally better and ready for the day. Kathy stayed in bed to catch up on the sleep that she had been deprived of last night, while Karin, Preston and I went off to see the Parque O’Higgins.
O'Higgins Park (Spanish: Parque O'Higgins, formerly known as Parque Cousiño), with an area of around 75 hectares (190 acres), is Santiago, Chile's second largest public park after Metropolitan Park. It is located in the centre of the capital, in the Santiago Commune.
The park, named after Bernardo O'Higgins (one of Chile's founding fathers), is a popular place for families to visit during weekends and holidays, especially during the national holiday on 18th September, when a number of fondas and ramadas (traditional places for dancing, eating and drinking) are open to the public for a few days.
We took the Metro and walked through an area of very European-looking apartments to the huge park. There was a very wide “road” in the centre which looked like it was a racetrack of some description.
We had some soft drinks at a hexagonal wooden kiosk and then walked around the lake. There was a nice-looking Chinese garden on the island in the middle, but it was closed. We sat on the grassy bank and chatted for a couple of hours. Swans cruised the lake and a football team trained nearby.
We took the Metro back, travelling initially on the cheaper second line to the centre (23 Chilean Pesos!), eating churros (extruded doughnuts) in a cloud of icing sugar. The others went to see a Swedish film while I went to see Arnold Schwartzeneggar on the run in “The Running Man”.
By 2017, the United States has become a totalitarian police state following a worldwide economic collapse! The film's story about a television show where convicted criminal "runners" must escape death at the hands of professional killers is very loosely based on the 1982 novel of the same name written by Stephen King and published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
I met the others who said that their film was good despite being in Swedish with Spanish subtitles. We walked down to the Plaza Brasil (Brasil Square) which is located in Barrio Brasil, a neighbourhood of Santiago, Chile known for its strong artistic and cultural scene.
The square is bordered by Avenida Brasil to the east, Huérfanos street to the south, Compañía de Jesús street to the north and Maturana street to the west. The construction of the square dates to the beginning of the 20th Century, when the Municipality of Santiago bought some buildings in the sector to form the square. It was inaugurated on 20th January 1902.
We had a Chinese set meal in the huge “Pobres Ricos” Restaurant and returned to our room where we indulged in tea and mineral water and resisted our usual alcoholic debauchery.
Kathy drew a frog on Karin’s foot as we all exchanged home addresses, and despite the lack of alcohol we talked bollocks and buggered about until midnight.
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