The skyscrapers of central Santiago against a backdrop of skyscrapers
Santiago style - Chile
Santiago was once overlooked but, in recent years, the Chilean capital’s great dining, lively nightlife and impeccable style have been luring visitors from far and wide, discovers Nicola Corthay.
Okay, so let’s mention the elephants in the room right away. Santiago isn’t quite Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro. It isn’t the sort of South America tourists like to imagine – don’t count on carnivals, colour and ladies shaking their booty to the sound of a samba or tango. Santiago is another South America entirely: preposterous and tidy, reflecting the dynamism of modern Chile and the “real” life of business and industry, shopping and street life.
As for those who say Santiago is uninteresting, they clearly haven’t been there for a while. After all, the city is home to a third of Chile’s population and is its undisputed cultural, economic and historic centre. And in recent years, the capital has been undergoing quite a transformation. A vast transportation and environmental overhaul has put paid to the worst of its traffic and smog, and you now have a much better chance of seeing the Andes on the horizon. Santiago is clean, elegant, full of parks and green belts and very easy to get around, since the excellent metro system doubled its network in the last few years.
A quiet street in the Bellvista residential neighbourhood
Santiago also boasts the country’s best theatres and restaurants, its most educated people and most stylish shops. The city’s arts scene, restaurants and nightlife have improved beyond measure and the city boasts a shiny new cultural centre. Most people just pass through but really, three or four days would be good, especially if you wanted to use the city as a base for exploring nearby wineries, Pacific beaches and excellent Andean ski resorts, which can all be experienced on daytrips.
The secret to enjoying Santiago is simply to absorb its energy and impeccable style as you wander the streets. The city centre, where you’ll find most of the sights, is relatively compact and, with a grid pattern of streets and many pedestrian precincts, can largely be seen on foot. The Andes loom to the east, which is always a good way to orient yourself, and the Plaza de Armas stands grandly at the centre of town. The square was created in 1541 as the country’s civic centre, and is surrounded by impressive buildings.
The Court of Justice has become a natural history museum and the Governor’s Palace the main post office. A marble statue commemorating independence stands in a tree-shaded garden where old men play chess, office workers eat sandwiches and street artists sell their wares. In true South American contrast, well-heeled businessmen sit side-by-side with shoe-shiners and women hawking boxes of matches.
A soldier guards the Presidential Palace.
Another landmark building worth inspecting in Santiago is the utterly beautiful Teatro Municipal, built in 1857 with baroque and classical French influences. Try to attend a ballet, symphony or opera here if you can; you can also take a tour in English to see behind the scenes of the wonderful old establishment. Lastly, head to the Church of San Francisco, the oldest building left in earthquake-prone Santiago. It has a beautiful collection of seventeenth-century art and a very tranquil convent garden with fountains.
The streets around the Plaza de Armas form the old commercial heart of Santiago, with some lively pedestrianised shopping areas, crowded at lunchtime with Santiaguinos. The area is also characterised by cafés where waitresses in revealing clothes serve “coffee with legs” to leering businessmen. Some of the shadier places have smoked windows, but Café Caribe and Café Haiti are well-known enough to be patronised by women, too, and are just the places in which to soak up this rather eccentric Chilean custom.
Cafés apart, the city centre has a handsome backdrop of fine colonial buildings, museums and cultural centres, as if locals are anxious to prove their intellectual credentials. Winding cobblestone streets compete with wide avenues, and old stone buildings are jumbled with glass skyscrapers.
Sculpture outside pablo Neruda's house, La Chascona
You’ll want to amble about and explore the ubiquitous galerías, rambling little shopping precincts packed with small shops where you can rummage for antiques, interesting clothes from up-and-coming local designers, household goods and jewellery. One of the best is Mall Panorámico, which packs in more than a hundred shops between Avenida Ricardo Lyon and Avenida 11 de Septiembre. Craft markets, both permanent and weekly, are another common feature of the Santiago shopping scene. One of the best is Pueblito de Los Domínicos, not that easy to reach (take a taxi, as it’s in the Las Condes neighbourhood) but worth it for its arts and crafts, jewellery, traditional Chilean woollens such as ponchos, and some rather up-market antiques. Also worth a browse is Patio Bellavista down by the river, featuring more woodwork, jewellery, clothes and crafts, as well as a couple of excellent cafés.
El Mercado Central is a big tourist drawcard and, while you won’t find much here to take home as souvenirs, the city’s main market is well worth seeing for its spectacular array of fresh fruit and vegetables, piles of fish, eels and king crabs, all housed in a Victorian-era wrought-iron building. There are plenty of eateries here dishing up seafood, popular with tourists and locals alike. But there is much more choice these days, since Santiago’s gastronomical offerings have improved no end in the last decade.
Grilled seafood, lamb on the spit, corn pie and rustic cazuela stew made from meat and potatoes are all quite wonderful, but neighbourhoods such as Bellavista are coming up with all kinds of trendy restaurant choices, from Cuban to Spanish and Thai. Providencia (especially along Avenida Italia) and Lastarría (aka Santa Lucia) are also emerging as dining hotspots. The latter is a rather charming neighbourhood that also boasts great cafés, just the place to linger over cakes or ice-cream.
Santa Lucia hill is a popular urban park
Several of Santiago’s suburbs are worth exploration, and not just for their food. Barrio París-Londres is home to the grand mansions of the city’s elite. Just west of the city centre, Barrio Brasil, a neighbourhood of well-preserved traditional buildings has, like the rest of the city, been undergoing something of a renaissance. The middle-class suburb of Ñuñoa is another charming, quiet area of tree-lined streets. Centred round a university, it comes to life at weekends when locals head to its street markets, soccer matches in the National Stadium, restaurants, nightclubs and concerts.
Bellavista can best be described as a bohemian village in the middle of the city, sandwiched between the Mapocho River and San Cristóbal Hill. The tree-lined streets are cluttered with old houses, artists’ studios, cafés and restaurants, all painted in pastel shades. The place is peaceful during the day and a great place for a wander while, at night, the energy jumps up a level or two as the precinct’s bars and nightclubs come to life at venues such as Blondie – where you might encounter anything from eighties nostalgia to electronic dance music, depending on the night – and La Feria, an old theatre at which you can catch live music and the odd rave. If you’ve reached a more mellow age, however, this is also the place to find laidback clubs offering jazz and bolero music.
Bellavista’s main attraction is La Chascona, the former home of Pablo Neruda and now a museum dedicated to the Nobel Prize-winning poet. (The name of the house means “The Tangled One” and refers to the untamed hair of Neruda’s wife.) Even if you know nothing about South American literature, the place is well worth visiting, built to resemble a ship with a winding series of oddly shaped rooms, full of antiques and curios from around the world.
Reflections of the old in the new in central Santiago
Near Neruda’s house lies the main entrance to the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago. This vast urban green space comprises a botanical garden, children’s play areas, swimming pools and recreation zones. Spend an idle few hours in the park and you’ll find out how Santiaguinos enjoy their leisure, whether it be cycling, jogging, picnicking or feeding Coke to some peevish-looking monkeys in the very old-fashioned zoo.
Then hike up to the summit of Cerro San Cristóbal that tops the park, or take the delightful funicular, dating from 1925. The hill is presided over by a huge white statue of the Virgin Mary that can be seen from all over the city and provides a good compass for wandering visitors. On a clear day, there are staggering views of Santiago’s vast urban sprawl and the brooding peaks of the snow-capped Andes while beyond, the rest of South America waits to be explored. •
Photography by Nicola Corthay and Sheraton Santiago Hotel.
The snowcapped Andes are a backdrop to central Santiago
Travel Facts
Getting there
- LAN Airlines has daily services from Australia to Santiago. Phone 1800 221 572 or go to www.lan.com
- Aerolineas Argentinas flies to Santiago via Buenos Aires. Phone 02 9234 9000 or visit www.aerolineas.com.au
Getting around
Where to stay
- The luxury Grand Hyatt Hotel Santiago stands in the upmarket district of Las Condes and has a great spa and swimming pool, with golf courses nearby. Phone +56 2 950 1234 or visit www.hyatt.com
- Sheraton Santiago Hotel and Convention Center is within walking distance of many of the city’s sights and features wonderful views of the Andes from its upper floors. Phone +56 2 233 5000 or visit www.sheraton.com
Tips
- At the time of writing, AU$1 = 402.8 Chile Pesos (CLP)
- Chile shares the same seasons as Australia, making the summer months (December to March) a delightful time to visit.
Further information
The Chilean flag flying outside the Presidential Palace
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