Plaza de Armas was a busy part of Santiago. This was one place in the Chilean capital that was full of people throughout the day.

It was for us the place from where we branched out and visited sights and attractions like the Mercado Central, the Museo de Santiago, and other churches.

One funny incident happened here. I needed to use the bathroom and do no. 1 (pardon my students' lingo and if you still don't get it, I needed to piss). I kept holding it until I could no more. Marc and I even visited the nearby tourist office in the hopes of finding one there. Instead, we were directed to a public bathroom right next to the cathedral. Turns out, it was a very nice and very well maintained one. One caveat: there was an admission. 500 pesos per person. Once done, I looked for some toilet paper since I was not able to shoot everything into the bowl. I wanted to clean the seat but found no toilet paper to wipe the seat with. Turns out, the paper was outside the stalls and if ever anyone wanted to do no. 2, he had to get all the tissue he needed beforehand right by the door. Well now, since I was about to burst and I wasn't exactly a local, I didn't see it. It was a good thing I had some tissue in my pocket. There was staff though that kept the huge bathroom immaculate. Truly clean and spotless.

When I was still planning our trip to Chile, I had originally wanted to stay here, in the city center. A colleague of mine from work in San Francisco and a native of this city, advised me against it. Instead, she insisted I stayed somewhere else since there wasn't much to do here once it got dark and it was quite dangerous here too at night, she added.