We arrived to Santiago during the build up to New Year's eve. This time of the year is crazy in the city, everyone takes the party very seriously and sellers and buyers gathered on the streets to get the cheapest fireworks and colour sprays for the night. We stayed near Estacion Central where the metro station meets the train station at the hotel Imperio. It cost 38.000 per night with breakfast included, and although it might seem a bit pricey it places you in the middle of the chaos. The market that surrounded the entire area sold all kinds of things and it was noisy and lively the entire time we were there.
Some curious things we noticed about Santiago during New Year's eve is that they use yellow underwear for luck, they use masks, hats and "matasuegras", as well as loving the culture of fireworks. This is starting to get lost in Spain for the risks and the children being irresponsible but here it's still big and used by people of all ages.
All the build-up was impressive and at night, on the 31st, after 6pm people left the streets to get ready for a long night. All the shops and the markets closed and we stayed in the hotel, wishing a happy new year to earlier time zones and eating chocolate. We heard a few fireworks but nothing too big, we slept just fine so it wasn't that noisy around our area after all.
We woke up the first of January to find an empty street, nothing open. It was midday and except for a restaurant on the corner from our hotel, everything was closed for the new year. We decided to take the metro and venture somewhere during that quiet day in Santiago. We took the metro to Universidad de Chile and walked to the main square. There was a lot to do in this area and we found what seemed to be the heart of Santiago. We took pictures of the main buildings and inside a church where there was a service going on. The architecture around La Moneda and U. De Chile is pretty impressive and we recommend it if you are into that kind of photography.
We ate at Telepizza (9.090 pesos) the only thing open around and went back to our station as the sun was rising right on top of our heads.
During our time in Santiago we also managed to visit the national football stadium in Nuble. We were let inside the stadium with the only condition of not stepping on the grass!
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