Sunday at the Museums and in the Park

Santiago has a great  many museums.  We visited three of them on Sunday, each very different from the others.  We started at the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art.  The museum covers about 10,000 years of history.  The very extensive exhibits are arranged geographically, starting in what is now Southern Mexico and ranging to Southern Chile.  We spent almost three hours at the museum, and were particularly struck by how little we really know of the pre-Columbian history of Latin America.

                                                  Pottery from Mexico

                                                     From Central America

                                             Figures of Women, Coastal Ecuador

                                                     Coco Leaf Chewer, Peru

                                               Copper Figures and Masks, Peru

Mummification Process 2,000 Years Before the Egyptians, Chile

       

                                                    Objects from Easter Island
   
  
 
  

Carved Figures Used Atop Graves, Southern Chile

From the Pre-Columbian Museum we cut across the Plaza to the Museo Historico Nacional, housed in an 1807 colonial building.  On the way we once again saw the formation of the caribineros.  We aren't sure if they report there for duty and a review, as they seem to show up, stand (or sit if mounted) around awhile and then disperse.

Carabineros de Chile at the Plaza de Armas

1850 Steam Engine, Imported from England, Historical Museum

Our third museum was the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes.  The museum was built in 1910 as part of a celebration of the centennial of Chile's independence.  The main hall, with a stunning glass and iron ceiling, displays quite interesting sculptures by Chilean artisits interspersed with rather badly done reproductions of famous European statuary.  

Chilean Sculpture

Great Hall

Leaving the Bellas Artes Museum, we walked a few blocks to Santa Lucia Hill.  Valdivia founded the city at the foot of this rocky outcrop, but it wasn't developed until the early 1900's when the then Mayor of the city decided to put 1500 prisoners to work building a park.  The park has a number of terraces, plantings and pathways and some very nice views of the city.  We avoided the many steps to the top by taking an ancient outdoor elevator, located about a block from our apartment.  It was a very nice ending to a very nice day.

Nick and the Elevator

One of the Buildings in the Park

One of the Park's Paths

Figures with Burned Feet.  The Artist or Vandals?

City View, Andes in the Distance