S is for Santiago (but which one?)

We’re up to the letter S in April's A-Z Challenge.  San Francisco would be the perfect city to add to my bucket list of places I’d like to visit, except that I have spent a lot of time in the City by the Bay and it's one of my favorite cities.  San Francisco would also be perfect because today is the release date of Chrys Fey’s first novel, Seismic Crimes.  The book is set in San Francisco and at the bottom of the post, you can learn more about it.  Read more about it at the end of this post.

So if not San Francisco, where else?  Paddling the Suwanee River is on my list, but I have paddled part of it so it’s disqualified.  I’ve been to San Diego, Seattle, San Juan, San Antonio.  In fact, I’ve been to so many Sans that I can never get it out of my shoes. 

But I don’t recall ever being in a Santiago and there are at least three that I would like to visit.  I’ve already written about traveling to Cuba and taking the train from Havana to Santiago.  That’s one.  I would also love to go to Santiago de Compostela, Spain.  The ideal trip would be me walking into the city with a host of pilgrims, having trekked across the Pyrenees, ending up at the Cathedral of St. James.  Walking the Caminio  is one of two of hikes I hope to complete as my years wind down. That’s two.  But the other Santiago is the one I’d love to visit.  It’s in Chili (before moving to Savannah, I was exploring the possibility of moving there for a few years, but that’s a story that didn’t work out).  This Santiago is the perfect “S” destination because not only does it begin with the proper letter, it’s also in a supper active earthquake zone, making it the perfect “second” city to pair with Chrys’ novel.   

What’s there to do in Santiago?  I'm sure there's good Rock 'n' Roll, but it might just be of the seismic variety as the city is close to the Pacific's Ring of Fire. The mountains are close by with climbing and skiing opportunities.  Plus, this would be a great city to knock off three of my bucket list, involving an overland trip to Patagonia and then a flight to the Falklands.   In the city, there is the main plaza, the national cathedral, the tallest building in South America.  While there, I'd have to take the train out into the country.  Sadly, like many national railways, train service has been drastically but but I'd have to at least take the train so I can say I've ridden out of a station designed by Gustave Eiffel (who went on to build the Eiffel Tower in some European city.   And then there's food.  I’d have to wangle my way into a dinner invitation from Gloria at Canela Kitchen. (It's not exactly in Santiago, but in the nearby city of Concepcion.)  If you have not checked out her blog, you should for she has had my mouth watering on many occasions and I've even tried my hand at preparing some of her dishes.

The train station Eiffel designed

 And now, check this out:

Bonus S: SEISMIC CRIMES

Today is the release of Chrys Fey's first novel!

An Internal Affairs Investigator was murdered and his brother, Donovan Goldwyn, was framed. Now Donovan is desperate to prove his innocence. And the one person who can do that is the woman who saved him from a deadly hurricane—Beth Kennedy. From the moment their fates intertwined, passion consumed him. He wants her in his arms. More, he wants her by his side in his darkest moments.

Beth Kennedy may not know everything about Donovan, but she can’t deny what she feels for him. It’s her love for him that pushes her to do whatever she has to do to help him get justice, including putting herself in a criminal’s crosshairs.

When a tip reveals the killer's location, they travel to California, but then an earthquake of catastrophic proportions separates them. As aftershocks roll the land, Beth and Donovan have to endure dangerous conditions while trying to find their way back to one another. Will they reunite and find the killer, or will they lose everything?

DIGITAL LINKS:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / KOBO / The Wild Rose Press

ALSO AVAILABLE IN PRINT!