La Foresta Hotel

I have been recommended this hotel as an inexpensive, comfortable and centrally located spot.

It's an older building with a "French" theme (old sofas in the lobby with signs saying don't sit on this fragile work of art). There is a doorman and the lobby help is friendly. Across the street is a forrested hill (un cerro), called Santa Lucia. There is a path to the top and, I believe, a gazebo of sorts on top where music is played. However, they close it around 7pm and I have yet to get in there when it is open, but I did hear music the other night. The hotel is about 5 blocks from La Plaza de Armas, the center of the old part of the city. My room is on the 2nd floor, above the bar. It's cute in a funky way, with a living room (parlor)

, then a hall with bath

that leads into the bedroom.

Nothing is square and the bedroom window looks out onto the street. The parlor window looks into a ventilation pit. I stretch my sore back a bit and work on the computer eventually to reckon with the fact that it is cold in this hotel. Asking downstairs, they tell me the heat comes on at 9pm. All very well, but it only seems to catch up with the cold building around 2am! I run the trickle of hot water for about ten minutes and eventually get a temp I can take a bath in. The upper safety drain has been patched and there are rust holes in the tub there. After I get comfy in a hot tub, the phone rings and they tell me that my bath is causing a leak in the ceiling in the bar!

I head to La Plaza de Armas for some local fare. It's Friday night and the plaza is crawling with people. There is an elevated gazebo-like thing, but the people are not playing music, but chess! Most of the food I see is some kind of a Chilean hot dog, varous kinds of pizza (not Italian), or these things called churrascos. The churrasco is on a bun with thinly sliced meat, onions, tomato, mystery sauce etc. It's a lot like the "cemita" I had in Mexico, but the meat looks more trustworthy. They also are big on a dish with french fries and grilled, shredded beef and bacon on top with a creamy sauce, onions and possibly a fired egg. "Lomo Pobre", the poor man's steak, is similar: a bed of french fries with a piece of steak and a fried egg on top. All this is in the range of $5-$15, depending on the size and whether or not you get a beer with it.