Estación Central

This is Estación Central, Santiago's train station. We

took it down to San Bernardo to see a Cueca

dance-a-thon, but that's a story for another day.

Fun facts: The station opened in 1897 and was designed

by Gustave Eiffel (of the Tower fame).

El Hoyo

This is Daniel, my tour guide through culinary Santiago.

He is also Daniela's father. Behind him, you can see one

of the signs for the restaurant. Note the barrel, it'll be

important later.

This is me, in front of another sign. Again,

note the barrel.

Inside. You get the idea, but with bonus scarecrow.

Here's Daniela, posing with a barrel. The

story goes that the restaurant used to be by

the train tracks, worked on by manly men

who made El Hoyo their spot. And because it

was such a ruggedly manly spot, they had no

time to eat their meals over tables. "I'll eat

it on a barrel," they at least thought, and that's

what they did. And while many people still eat

their meals there on barrels, it wasn't uniform.

As you'll notice:

Daniela's dad is sitting at a table as he

mixes up this pitcher of terremoto. The

word translates literally to "earthquake,"

and it is pineapple ice cream in leftover

wine called pipeño.

This is what it looks like in a glass.

Before the meal, as an appetizer of sorts, we got plate

full of different meats, like cow's tongue and pernil

(pig thigh), goat cheese, and pickles. I really should've

taken a picture before most of it was eaten, because it

was an imposing plate.

This is my dish: carne mechada. It tasted like pot roast

with carrots stuffed in it. It was good.

I'll leave you with some final pictures of the

restaurant's ambience: