A pretty and commodious clubhouse faces the Plaza, and near by are many charming villas of attractive architecture surrounded by luxuriant vegetation of tropical and temperate climes, beautiful flower beds, trees, and shrubbery. Half a mile from the center of the town is a fine beach bordered by jutting rock promontories. Large bathing establishments, cafés for ices and tea, and splendid villas with well laid out grounds recall our own shore resorts. A good pedestrian may be tempted to climb over the steep enclosing hill and descend on the other side to the electric car track for his return to the city. The Grand Hotel with beautiful grounds is the leading hostelry of the place.
Miramar is a small but popular bathing resort in the opposite direction from Valparaiso, reached by electric cars; but the bathing is here more dangerous, as not far from shore the bottom drops suddenly to a great depth.
From Valparaiso to Santiago by rail is a ride of 3½ or 4 hours by express trains and about two more by accommodation. The price of tickets for the express is 12.80 pesos, 4 extra for seat in Pullman; 8.50 pesos by slower train. It is a pleasant ride, for a few miles near the shore, passing Viña del Mar, then east through the Coast Range to the Central Plain, at Llai-Llai leaving the Andine Railway to turn southward to Santiago.
CHAPTER XVIII
SANTIAGO
Hotels. Oddó, A. P., 12 to 40 pesos; Grand, A. P., 12 to 18 pesos; Francia, and Royal, about the same; others at lower prices.
Chief Points of Interest. Plaza de Armas; Cathedral and other buildings around; the Capitol; the Moneda; the Alameda; Parque Cousiño; most important, Santa Lucia Park and the Cemetery; the Art Gallery.
Santiago, the capital and largest city of Chile, the third or fourth in size in South America, considered by some travelers to have the most beautiful location of any capital in the world except Rio de Janeiro, is situated on the river Mapocho in the long central valley of Chile, at an elevation of 2000 feet. Founded by the doughty warrior and Spanish invader, friend and almost counterpart of Francisco Pizarro, Pedro de Valdivia, it was by him planned and laid out in 1541 after he had first built a fort on Santa Lucia hill, an excellent site for the purpose, recalling the ancient Greek Acropolis or some of the mediæval strongholds. On account of the too great dispersion of the invaders, the settlement for some years had a hard struggle for existence, but during its century of independence it has grown rapidly. Its population, now approaching 400,000, is ten times as great as when independence was declared in 1810.
The site is indisputably one of remarkable beauty and picturesque charm, without any interference with the convenience of a large city. The hills in and on the edge of the city, rising like small islands abruptly from the plain, do not preclude long level streets, yet form a peculiar and admirable embellishment, while east and west, the mountains of the Great Cordillera and of the Coast Range, which a few miles away rise as lofty ramparts to the ethereal blue, are an ever sublime and noble contrast to the verdant smiling plain.
The climate of Santiago, which at 33° S. has about the same latitude as Charleston and San Diego N., is considered excellent; though the three winter months, in dwellings destitute of heating apparatus, seem rather cool indoors to residents of the United States. In the summer, though not extremely hot, it is very dusty, so that wealthy residents at this season escape to Viña del Mar or other seashore resorts, to the beautiful lake region, to the springs and baths among the mountains, or even to the fjords in the distant south. An amusing mot of a German is related by one who did not seem to appreciate it. “The climate of Santiago is good but it is very unhealthy.” And both statements have been quite true, the latter inexcusably so, resulting from the fact that ordinary sanitary measures have been neglected. The medical congress in 1911 was held in the midst of an epidemic of smallpox. There has been a woeful lack of sewerage. But happily the officials have at last come to realize the importance of sanitation, an adequate system of sewerage is now installed, and doubtless other deficiencies will soon be remedied.