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Santiago

Santiago, Chile · August 2025

Stayed: Hyatt Centric Las Condes, then The Ritz-Carlton, Santiago
Paid with: World of Hyatt points and a Suite Upgrade Award at the Hyatt Centric; 40,850 Chase points through The Edit at the Ritz-Carlton
Where: 33.44° S · 70.64° W

Part one · Cerro Santa Lucía

A small hill right in the middle of downtown, where Pedro de Valdivia founded the city in 1541. Now it's a park of stairs, terraces and turrets with views over the whole city.

At the foot of the hill

The Terraza Neptuno, the grand staircase and fountain on the Alameda side

The Neptune fountain and its double staircase

The terrace, with the hilltop walls above

Up through the gardens

Paths, stairs and lookouts wind up the old volcanic rock

Toward the top

Turrets above the aloes, in bloom in August

The view

Santiago on a grey winter evening

The city, with the Torre Entel on the left

Cerro San Cristóbal, with the Gran Torre Santiago in the haze

Part two · Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

A few blocks from the Plaza de Armas, with art from across the Americas made before Europeans arrived.

Chile's own past

The ground floor gallery, Chilean cultures from the Atacama to Rapa Nui

The map of the Americas over the stairwell, with the timeline of cultures beside it

A Chinchorro mummy. They began mummifying their dead around 6000 BC, thousands of years before Egypt

A khipu, the knotted cords the Inca used to keep records

Moai kavakava and other wooden spirits from Rapa Nui

The rest of the Americas

Upstairs, from Peru to Mexico

Spondylus shell necklace, Ica-Chincha, AD 1000–1500

Chimú blackware: a tuber-shaped vessel, a gourd bottle, and a nursing feline

Vicús gilded copper snail ornaments and a mask

A Maya stela of a warrior ruler, from Aguateca

Where I stayed · Hyatt Centric Las Condes

Three nights in Las Condes, the business district east of downtown. Booked on World of Hyatt points and upgraded to a Junior Suite with a patio using a Suite Upgrade Award.

The Junior Suite

Upgraded with a Suite Upgrade Award

The bedroom, with velvet chairs and a marble side table

The patio

A private terrace high over Las Condes

Sunset from the patio, with the Gran Torre Santiago lit up on the left

Small things

A welcome dessert and handwritten note from the hotel

Out the front door, with the snowy Andes at the end of the street

Where I stayed · The Ritz-Carlton, Santiago

Three more nights in El Golf, a few blocks from the Hyatt Centric. Booked through Chase's The Edit for 40,850 Ultimate Rewards points with Points Boost. The Edit added daily breakfast for two, a $100 property credit and the welcome amenity.

The room

A king room in El Golf

The bedroom, with a chaise by the window

Marble bathroom with a separate shower and toilet room

The long dresser and desk along the windows

Welcome and dinner in

The welcome amenity: a hotel-label Undurraga Carménère with truffles

Room service steak and fries, with a tulip on the tray

More of Santiago coming.