Santiago Day 1: Gran Torre Costanera

I can see the Andes from here!
Of course, you can see the Andes from just about anywhere in Santiago as long as the fog/smog isn't too thick.

The final extremely touristy thing I did today was visit Gran Torre Costanera. Of course, I'm a tourist. I do touristy things. Because that's what we tourists do. 

The Gran Torre Costanera is the tallest building in South America. It's 300m tall, which translates to 980 feet. Which translates to: damn that's tall. Especially since this is a country known for having some of the most massive earthquakes on the planet. (Only Japan and Alaska really compete with Chile for the power of their seismic activity.)

The Santiago modern business district has a "Sun Belt" feel to it, meaning the buildings are spaced apart, campus-like, even though they are skyscrapers. This is the Los Angeles or Dallas way of doing things. It is not like an East Coast city, or a European skyscraper district.

And that's part of the reason why Chile and Santiago definitely has a "first world" vibe. Lima was a third world city. That's not a criticism. I would be direct if I were criticizing Lima in this way. But in Santiago, the streets are paved smooth. Traffic is quiet even when it is thick (and the thick traffic is limited to rush hours). Lanes are respected. (I've read this being called "lane integrity." Santiago has it.)

The Gran Torre Costanera is an office building and a shopping mall. To ascend to the observation deck near (but not at) the top, you walk through the shopping mall section, not the office building section.

And the shopping mall part of the Gran Torre Costanera has a gi-normous "Hello Kitty" store. Yes, we are in the upscale part of the world.

You pay your money -- about $18 dollars U.S., or 18,000 Chilean pesos -- 1000 Chilean pesos is about a dollar -- close enough for "in your head" currency conversion -- and you get on the elevator and are whisked up 61 stories. The elevator opens to this:

A model of the building you are in.

It is not always this sunny in Santiago, so if I ever was going to go the observation deck of the Gran Torre Costanera, today would be the day. And the views were great.

The problem, however, with being this high up, is that you can't really make out details in the buildings below. I can see Cerro Santa Lucia, which is the hill near my hotel. I could see Cerro San Cristobal and a glimpse of the giant Virgin Mary statue at the top of that hill. But even if I knew the architectural features of Santiago better, I don't think I could find them. And the names of various sights are even listed above the windows!

There still was a few more stories of building above the observation deck level. But this was high enough for me.

Of course, there was an "open air" deck one floor up. Should I brave it? I've already come this far.

And the "open air" deck is not all that "open air." The air is noticeably cooler than on the climate-controlled observation deck floor below. But it's not "open," with maybe fencing or a cage-like structure like I was fearing.

Thank God there are no plexiglas balconies here.

The views are nice from the "open air" deck, but they are not really all that different from the full-enclosed floor of the observation decks. Look! There are the Andes. And that was the best part. The Andes were quite visible on this sunny autumn day, but not any more visible in the crisper air of the "open air" deck.

Truth be told, however, with the glass of this particular "open air" deck extending up about five or six more stories above the top of my head, this was my kind of "open air" observation deck.

And here I am in case you thought that I really would not go to the top of a skinny 1000-foot tall skyscraper in earthquake country. 

I look like I'm having the time of my life way up at the top of this skinny 1000-foot tall skyscraper in earthquake country. Say, aren't those the Andes just over my right shoulder?