Filed under: chile, cities, coffee, pollution, santiago, south america, tea, travel
I’ve just moved to Arica for a couple of months. A big factor in our decision to move was the smog in Santiago. It’s a pity, because Santiago is such a clean, safe, fun place. I bet it could make the top 20 world’s most liveable cities list, with it’s great parks and public transport system – if it weren’t for the traffic and pollution. We’ll be back there later in the year most likely, but we couldn’t bear the prospect of the smog getting worse as winter descended, so we got away to the clear skies, sweeping beaches and national parks in the north of the country.
So thumbs down to Santiago for being so polluted. Thumbs up, however, to these awesome places that made my month in Santiago lots of fun, despite the smog. I intend to visit all of these places again next time I’m in Santiago, and if you happen to be in town I recommend you do the same. I’ll start with my local neighbourhood and fan out from there.
Providencia is a great suburb (‘barrio’ in Spanish) for strolling through parks and enjoying some of the best food Santiago has to offer. I took this video in Providencia one morning, in the park next to Baquedano station. This park stretches from one end of Providencia to the main art gallery in Bellas Artes.
There’s a cute little literary cafe in Parque Baquedano. It took us a while to get the courage to go in, because they have a membership system and we didn’t know if we were allowed. However the draw of sipping expresso in their leafy cafe area with its scholarly ambiance was strong enough that we braved potential humiliation at being turned away to venture inside. W got an espresso for about a dollar, and were able to sit and peoplewatch as long as we liked. They didn’t ask us for membership cards or look at us strangely. In my imperfect Spanish I translated from their site that you can donate a book instead of paying for yearly membership, which appeals to me.
At the other end of Providencia, near Pedro de Valdivia station, are some great restaurants and shops. One of my favourites is El Huerto – a must visit even if you’re not vegetarian. It’s worth seeing its great sunken dining room with a mural of Patagonia and wooden beams overhead, and if you’re craving Indian they have a few things on the menu to sate your appetite before another few weeks of guacamole and quinoa. We had our farewell dinner in Santiago with a group of friends in their sunken dining room. For something more casual I really liked Shot Cafe on Avenida Providencia. They make great coffee, which is organic and biodynamic. I enjoyed the cheap daily specials and they had excellent salads and sandwiches, which they happily modified for the vegan. You could probably make do just with English there, too. Maybe. Another reason I like Shot Cafe is they had a great sound system which could have been playing from my iPod, with a bass-rich mix of Massive Attack and some peppier Beck as a backgound for our peoplewatching.
Lastarria is probably my favourite suburb of Santiago though, with a cool mix of cafes and local designer shops and the must-see Cerro Santa Lucia, my photos from which are locked on my camera. The cord to connect said camera to my computer is on the way in a package from Australia as we speak, so they should be up soon, Australian and Chilean postal systems permitting. A friend told us that medieval sword fighting goes on beneath the castle atop Cerro Santa Lucia on Saturday mornings, which we weren’t organised enough to verify but is tempting enough to be worth a morning visit next time we’re i town.
Barrio Lastarria is organised enough to have its own deservedly funky website, which is worth checking for the latest goings-on if you’re in town. There’s a super-cool clothes and accessories shop called Hecha in Chile – Made in Chile. Despite having a “don’t buy anything for the first few months” policy I couldn’t help but buy two dresses, and a hoodie for Tim there. In fact, the only shopping indiscretions I allowed myself in Santiago were all in Lastarria. If you prefer local designers to chains then this is your stomping ground.
On the other side of Providencia from Lastarria, Bellavista is also worth a visit, but I put it further down my list because it’s in every guidebook and on all the tours and so is a bit hackneyed. At night the main street, Pio Nono, is pretty feral with its crass bars and drunkards. But if you go to the end of that street during the day you can get the cheap furnicular to the top of Parque Metropolitano de Santiago – South America’s loftier answer to New York’s Central Park. If you head up several hours after rainfall you’re treated to a view like this. On your way to or from the park, diverge from the main street a little to visit La Chascona, one of Pablo Neruda’s homes. There are tours in English or Spanish, or you can just sit, relax and enjoy the cool architecture and vibe over a coffee in their upstairs cafe.
A couple of my favourite places in the centre of town are the La Vega fruit market, behind El Mercado Central, which is really just a fish market, unlike my home town’s Adelaide Central Market which has everything. I found the central market here to be too cramped and sleazy; lots of men trying to coerce me to dine at their establishments. Not cool at all. La Vega, however, it great fun. I’m going to write a separate entry about it when I can download my photos from there, which will give you more of an idea. The centre also has another favourite of my cafes on Calle Esmerelda, La Boa Torio. The name is a play on laboratory, thanks to their alchemy-inspired looseleaf tea mixes and presentation of spices in test tubes. What really rocks about this place though is the upstairs sanctuary. Climb a tiny ladder and you find possibly the cosiest place to sip tea in South America.
We’ve spent the week exploring our local neighbourhoods, Providencia and Bellavista. It’s a ten minute walk half through park and half along highway (what a contrast) to the hubs of both neighbourhoods, in either direction.
On our first morning in Providencia we stumbled unexpectedly upon the local market, where they sold all the fruit and vegetables I could imagine, along with several I’ve never imagined before. We’ve become fond of a fruit that sits alongside the apples in supermarkets but is more like a small melon. It’s mottled white and green on the outside but on the inside is like a small, but sweeter, honeydew melon.
I love the way they handle pumpkins here. Rather than sell pre-wrapped portions, or opt for some dwarf variety, most market stalls and even supermarkets have one giant pumpkin. A customer asks for however much pumpkin’s desired and the grocer lops a chunk off with a giant knife there and then.
There’s also a bewildering array of grains and pulses. I was thrilled to get a bag of quinoa for about a dollar at the market, given that it’s typically several times that at health food stores in Australia. They also have puffed and honeyed amaranth as a breakfast option.
South America is lucky to have these excellent, whole-protein grains to call their own. So it could be a health food paradise – except fast food chains probably have more of a grip on the local population than traditional staples. As well as the typical Macdonalds and KFC there’s a fast-food chain called Schopdog, which sells hotdogs and revels in United States kitsch. Here in Chile guacamole comes with everything; hotdogs are no exception.
Guacamole or avocado salsa comes with everything because avocados are abundant. Tim was thrilled to discover you can buy them for a dollar fifty a kilo at the supermarket. Given we use avocado instead of butter (especially with vegemite on toast – try it!), having this staple so readily available is a one of those little things that make living in Chile worthwhile.
They eat late here, with breakfast nearly non-existant and lunch the main meal after 2pm. This took a few days to get used to, and one day we were hungry at 1:30pm after wandering since 11. We were in the heart of Providencia’s restaurant area but everywhere we asked said they didn’t start serving until 2. We resigned ourselves to eating at home, so walked back to our apartment with growling stomachs, imagining what we’d concoct with what remained in the fridge.
We reached the base of our apartment building and, still in the spirit of wandering, peered down the lane alongside. It was filled with upmarket cafes! Somehow we’d missed this every time we’d left and returned from the apartment thus far, as from the street the lane looks like it could be just a service entrance. I blame the jetlag on our lack of attention to detail.
Fortuitously it had just passed 2, so there was food and service galore. We sat down at a table where we could bask in the afternoon sun, where I had a vegetarian pizza (which was average, but I was hungry enough not to care) and Tim had a tofu and betroot salad, which was excellent. We also had fresh mint and pear juices served in beer glasses, which was a delightful combination I intend to repeat at home.
The best value vegetarian food we’ve found so far turned out to be right under our noses.
Filed under: chile, development, food, international relations, santiago, south america, travel
My first morning in Chile I awoke feeling dizzy and nauseous. At first I recalled my doctor had said I might suffer from altitude sickness in the Andes, then I came to my senses and realised I hadn’t eaten for more than 24 hours. After devouring a muesli bar and some macadamia nuts that weren’t confiscated at customs, we ventured into the street.
I was still alarmed by the fast traffic that zipped past. Evidently highway proximity doesn’t have the same negative real estate effect it does in Australia, as we were opposite the Hyatt and next to a five-star hotel, where men in top hats and red coats were escorting people out of their vehicles.
We crossed a pedestrian bridge and arrived where our landlord recommended we have breakfast, which turned out to be a giant shopping mall, similar to but plusher than those found in Adelaide or Calgary. It began with a large plaza where about a dozen restaurants were open for breakfast. These were no cheap Latino eateries, in fact it was hard to find a word of Spanish. There were half a dozen named in English, while the rest were a mix of French and Italian. I was flabbergasted; we may as well have been in North America. For our first breakfast in South America I had a crepe and Tim had a panini, both with espressos.
We discussed cultural imperialism over breakfast, but perhaps it would be fairer to say globalisation. As much as it seems easy to blame the United States, the restaurants were generally Italian, French or Japanese inspired. Australia has a similar lack of distinct cuisine; our culinary strengths come from multiculturalism. I wonder if foreigners visiting Australia are disappointed by the lack of a distinct local cuisine? I’ve always appreciated living somewhere with such variety, enjoying visiting places like Italy and Vietnam where reliably distinct dishes dominate, but inevitably tiring of the homogeneity. Yet finding such variety here after expecting cultural immersion was unsettling.
After breakfast we wandered the mall for a while, where my surprise continued. They have Zara and Topshop and United Colors of Benetton! I needn’t miss European fashion either. This is certainly not a developing country like most of its neighbours. Granted, thanks to a mixup by our landlord we were in one of Santiago’s ritziest neighbourhoods, so this is not typical of Chile. But it is Chile nonetheless. I’d reassured wary older relatives that Chile was a first-world country, in the OECD, safe enough. I’m not sure I really believed it, but I do now.
After wandering we returned outside only to stumble upon a Boost juice. If I was shocked before I was floored now. This business founded in Adelaide had extended to Santiago! How could we not support a local business gone global? So we sipped our juices while looking in the window of the Quiksilver shop next door.
I was rather relieved we were only in Viticura for one night, because as Tim observed, we hadn’t flown halfway around the world to do the same things we do at home.
As we emerged from the airport, my first thought was that Santiago reminded me more of Los Angeles than Madrid. Clearly we’re on the American continent.
Our taxi driver sped along the highway bopping to his latino radio, squeezing between buses with not an inch to spare, braking often as other drivers changed lanes without indicating. I gazed out at the billboards, traffic and palm trees and couldn’t help but think of California. We’d noticed the smog already from the airplane windows, a brown haze laced among the mountains.
The Andes were a shock. I’ve lived beneath the Italian Alps and Canadian Rockies. Either it’s been too many years since I’ve lived beneath mountains, or the Andes are simply more stark. Small hills dotted with bushes, reminiscent of Adelaide’s southern wine region, suddenly give way to massive jagged peaks. I imagined it in the winter; the double black runs surely outnumber the blue ones.
Like Los Angeles, the smog and traffic will be what makes downtown Santiago a place I don’t expect call home for that long. Driving through neighbourhoods towards the city centre, I got the impression the income inequality also mirrors Los Angeles. As if to confirm my comparison, Tim spotted a Hollywood-esque word spelt out in white on the side of a mountain, just visible through the haze.
We arrived at our apartment building on Avenida Providencia; the taxi driver pulled Tim off the road before he got hit by a bus. The ‘avenue’ is a highway with speed limits to match. Despite this, there’s a park in the middle that apparently comes alive like those of Tokyo on weekends. We could see across the street the statue that watches over the city from Cerro San Cristobal, in South America’s version of Central Park. Finally I felt like I was in South America. Catholic statues lording over cities may be guidebook cliché, but at least it was something to differentiate here from North America.
We were five minutes early for our apartment handover, but I failed to explain what exactly we were doing in my garbled, jetlagged Spanish to the man at reception, who opted to call the local number on the piece of paper I had with details of our apartment and landlord. He put me on the phone to our landlord who warmly welcomed us but said she was running late. So we settled on the big chairs in the impressive foyer of our apartment building, watching Santiaguinos coming and going under the stone gaze of the Virgin Mary on Cerro San Cristobal. After more forty minutes we tired of this, jetlagged as we were too; luckily our landlord arrived right then.
We lugged our (my) substantial lugged up in the elevator, only to discover the landlord didn’t have the right keys to the apartment, one of several she managed. Any anger we might have felt at being messed around was diffused by her genuine warmth and many apologies. Frustration abounded however. Luckily she had another apartment free in what Lonely Planet describes as Santiago’s plushest suburb, hence we ended up spending our first night in Santiago not in Providencia, but Viticura.
We piled our luggage into her tiny car and headed up above the smog line, to a darling little apartment with mountain views on both sides. She apologised further and promised to pick us up the next day when she had the right keys for the apartment we’d paid for. We farewelled her with hugs and cheek kisses, then explored the apartment. It had proportions similar to the country of Chile – long and narrow, with the bedroom at one end and kitchen and terrace at the other. We speculated as to whether it cost more or less than the one in Providencia. Then we slept, well before sunset, felled by jetlag.
I’m supposed to be dedicating all my time to finishing my thesis and finalising the book project I’m working on, but I’m deeply distracted by my plans for 2010, which seem all the more exciting when procrastinating finishing those other projects.
I’ve booked a flight for end of April to move to Chile!
After my taste of the Spanish speaking world based near Seville in 2007, I’ve been itching to get to South America. I made a pact with two girlfriends that we’d go on a trip there in 2009, after our Spanish holiday together, but it fell through, as we each were busy with our own projects in Australia. So I’m going it alone! Or rather with Tim, who I met in February and who is working on a comic book for a French publisher, so has the luxury of working from anywhere.
We’ve got 18-month round the world tickets, which means we have a year in South America, followed by Tim’s book launch and some time in France, then some time in Thailand on the way back home.
In the meantime, I’m planning to move to Chile delve back into the world of freelancing as I did in the UK, the payment for which should go a lot further in Chile than it did in England, if I’m working for international outlets.
At the moment I’m getting together the documents I need to get the Australian Government’s letter of government support to allow me to apply for a Working Holiday Visa there. I called the number for the Chilean embassy listed on the Australian immigration site to ask about how to apply for the visa, but they told me to call the number of the Chilean consulate in Melbourne.
While there’s no information about the Working Holiday Visa on the site, when I rang to ask, a friendly woman took my email address and said she would send me the details. Both Chilean consulate offices were quick to answer the phone, in contrast to the British and Canadian ones, which probably reflects the number of young Aussies who want to spend a year in their country. I’m looking forward to being a little more off the beaten track this time.
However the email from the consulate hasn’t arrived yet, so I might have to be more persistent. My experiences getting residency visas for Canada and the UK mean I won’t hesitate to follow up, as it seems to be the only way things get done.
Fingers crossed! Now back to the thesis.
