A highly recommended thing to do in Santiago is a free walking tour - this is what led the three of us to really liking Santiago. Our guide was Franco and he took us to a few places we had been to on our own walking tour, but also a few new ones. Importantly, he added plenty of chat and history to the experience making it entirely worthwhile.

We started in Plaza de Armas, getting a few facts about Chilean history and the two statues in the plaza. The first is who else but "el libertador", General San Martin. This statue features him riding a horse, but without reins, implying his liberating status and Chile's freedom.

The second statue is a large face, a dedication to the native Chilean tribe of the Mapuche. This is the only indigenous tribe to not be defeated by the Incans or the Spanish. The statue is seen by many as a fob off by the government to the political demands of the remaining Mapuche people and not liked by the Mapuche themselves.

Famously, the secret to the success of the Mapuche came from the Spanish. As a boy, Lautaro was a personal groom to a Spanish conquistador. But after four years he escaped, returned to the Mapuche tribe and trained them in Spanish war tactics. This meant the tribe were able to exist in a guerilla war against the Spanish. He also started a campaign of fear by attacking the Spanish is the most gruesome ways possible, allowing a legend to grow amongst their enemy about the fearsome, brutal Mapuche tribe. They fought off the Spanish for over three centuries.

Another feature of the tour was passing the Palacio de la Moneda which was where the military coup started in 1973 when the socialist president Salvador Allende died in an apparent suicide while the palace was under attack from tanks. Thus started the 16 year reign of General Augusto Pinochet, during which thousands of deaths and disappearances occurred. A statue of Allende exists in the plaza outside the palace and its both hugged and spat on by Chileans due to the polarised view of him. There is no public statue of Pinochet, anywhere in the city.

I had heard of cafe con piernas before, but Franco gave us the full story on this unique Chilean concept. After Pinochet was removed, Chileans experienced a greater amount of freedom and a few enterprising came up with the concept of good looking girls in low cut shirts and short skirts serving coffee to Santiago's business men. Hence the name cafe con piernas - coffee with legs.

As with any other remotely successful business on this continent the "South American business model" kicks in - several others pop up, copying the idea of the first. I assumed the term "cafe con piernas" to be a business name but it's actually a genre of cafes, each with their own name, although there are chains too. Eventually this was taken to another level with new cafes opening up offering you coffee served by girls in underwear. In these cafes, a couple of times a day, the doors are locked at a random time for one minute, called the "happy minute", and the girls strip until the minute is up and the doors are reopened. Interestingly, they are just cafes - there is no alcohol served, it is just coffees and teas; and they dont open at weekends as the target market is business men.

We past one of Santiago's eating institutions on our tour - Emporio La Rosa. It's an ice cream shop made famous by it's interesting but delicious flavours, such as green tea and mango, black pepper and chocolate and rose petal.

We crossed the Rio Mapocho as Franco took us into Barrio Bellavista. He admits himself that it's one of the worst rivers in the world. Franco showed us a few of the neighbourhoods best places to eat, which included one we had already eaten in called Galindo. He also recommended a popular club, Bar Constitucion, which Sean and I ended up in later that night. We were the tallest people there.

On Sunday we treated ourselves to some Emporio La Rosa ice cream. I can vouch for green tea and mango being delicious.

Monday saw us attempt to be local business men, without the suits, and have coffee in a cafe con piernas place. It was definitely weird.