Santiago Bits and Pieces

This is a mixed residential neighbourhood to the west of the city centre. It was once fairly affluent but the middle-classes moved out some decades ago. This was compounded when the Via Norte-Sur highway was constructed separating the area from the city centre. The western end of the area is still quite depressed and not an area to explore at night by yourself but the eastern end and the heart of the barrio has come back fighting.

The attractive Plaza Brazil is the centre of the area. This has some nice trees, benches, basketball hoops and soon on. There is a variety of cafes around the plaza and just west on Campania the Templo de la Preciosa Sangre is a big basilica with palms in front. If you walk south from the plaza towards Alameda take Cienfuegos or Jose Medina streets you will see some interesting and unusual buildings. There are examples of Art Nouveau, neo-colonial, mock-medieval and fin de siecle styles and some highly eccentric gargoyles and other decoration. My wife and I really enjoyed wandering around here.

In this area you will also notice several colleges and universities and these have helped to bring money and youthful vigour to the area. This has led to many lively restaurants being established here including several seafood restaurants on General Bulnes, two blocks west of the plaza. I have not been to any of these but a local contact suggested Caleta Bulnes (Tel: 698815) at No. 86 and Ostre Azocar at No. 37 as two good alternatives. There are also several Chinese and Mexican places near the square or just to the west. In this same area Los Buenos Muchachos at Cumming 1031 has been serving up steaks and other grilled meat since 1939. It has a folklore show in the evening and caters to tour groups.

Some accommodation is available in this area. It tends to be budget-style and caters to students going to the local colleges. Frankly, I think there are better areas to stay and I would certainly avoid the Western area towards Quinta Normal at this time.

South American cities seem more alive than those in say Australia and the US and I have concluded that this is because of the European design of plazas and squares that can be seen in almost all of them. This encourages people to get out of their apartments and walk, sit and talk in the squares and adjoining streets. In Santiago, we found several places where we joined the locals and watched the local street theatre.

The most obvious was the Plaza de Armas which is the centre of the old city and was laid out by Pedro de Valdivia when he founded Santiago in 1541. The plaza is surrounded by some of the city’s most important buildings – cathedral, post office, museum, church offices, city hall – but it is the street life which appeals. There is a bandstand on the east side where people play chess each day. There is a collection of living statues outside the cathedral when the weather is good and there are always people strolling or hurrying through. It is a great place for a visitor to absorb the atmosphere of the city. Don’t miss the three plaques set into the ground showing the extent of Santiago in 1580, 1646 and 1712.

There are several pedestrianised streets in this vicinity. Check out 21 de Mayo, Puente Ahumada and Huerfanos. All are very busy during the day and you will find stalls, soda fountains, shoe-shine boys and newspaper stands here. South across Alameda, the traffic-free Paseo Bulnes is much quieter and there are plenty of benches and fountains and few street traders or entertainers.

Another area that I strongly recommend is the Barrio Paris-Londres. The Franciscan monastery in this area sold off its gardens for development in the 1920s. The area has a slightly bohemian feel with its winding streets lined with harmonious houses and trendy restaurants frequented by the young university crowd. There are a couple of excellent bar/restaurants here which are very popular in the evening.

Many of these areas are not tourist attractions in the usual sense but for those seeking some understanding of the city and its people, some time just sitting and watching the passing tide is invaluable. We had some long walking-days in Santiago where we were on the streets for ten hours and this would not have been possible without some breaks in the squares and pedestrian streets of the city. We thoroughly enjoyed watching and, on occasion, talking to the locals.

This is a pedestrian area off Avenue Providencia which has two different personalities. By day it is a pleasant place to walk amongst the boutiques and cute half-timbered teashops while at night it becomes a haven for night clubbers and others. I was told that this ‘used to be "the place" in Santiago to hang out but that is no longer the case as here and nearby Calle Suecia are places for druggies and prostitutes’. There was no evidence of this when we visited late one afternoon but I must say that parts of the area seem to have seen better days so there could be some truth in this statement.

The whole Providencia area, has many slick, American-style bars that pull in a huge crowd of professional types, including lots of expats and foreign visitors. This is also a restaurant hotspot with several close to Holley and others on the main Avenue Providencia. Mar y Vinos is at Hooley and Bucarest, Macondo is at Holley 2368, Atakama is at Holley 2366 and El Indio Picaro is at Suecia 030. We had a good meal at this latter restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I do not claim to be a nightspot expert but we briefly called into Boomerang at Holley 2285. This high energy Suecia nightspot is a favorite for Santiago’s young scene chasers looking for ear-piercing dance music and a chance to rub shoulders with the city's socialites and party seekers. A few pool tables allow diversion from raucous socializing. This may not be the best choice for a casual glass of wine after a day of shopping and sightseeing, but travellers looking for a fun and festive outing will keep coming back.

Other pubs and discotheques in the area are Arriba de la Bola (Tel: 2327965) at Holley 171, Babel Club at Holley 2337, Charleston at Holley 2323, Bedrock at Suecia 78 and Brannigan’s at Suecia 35.

Apart from the metro, buses are the only other public transport option. The Transantiago system has standardized bus routes and combined local (feeder) bus lines, main bus lines and the subway network. It includes an integrated fare system, which allows passengers to make bus-to-bus or bus-to-metro transfers for the price of one ticket, using a single smartcard. While this is great for residents it is of little value for the visitor who has just arrived.

The bip! charge card allows you to get on any metro or bus. Furthermore, you can transfer from metro to a bus or vice versa and not get charged extra, as the fare carries over for 90 minutes from your first point of entry. Passengers who do not have the card may pay in cash (only in feeder buses).

Frankly, I found the bus system almost impossible to use. It was difficult to find the correct route, difficult to find the correct bus stop and difficult to determine which bus to actually catch. If you are staying for only a few days, my recommendation is to forget about it and take the metro or a taxi. If you want to persist you can buy a book that the company publishes and sells at newspaper stands anywhere in the city. Transantiago also has a website and a free paper map that are essential to the understanding of transit in the capital.

At present there are both new Transantiago-standard and old buses in operation. The main bus lines are operated with articulated (18 meters long) and normal buses, while the local services are operated with normal buses and minibuses.

Taxis are relatively cheap and the drivers don’t expect a tip but they often don’t carry street directories so it can be difficult getting to your desired destination if you don’t know the neighbourhood. They sometimes claim to have no change so it is handy to have something like the correct money. Radio taxis are also available and some locals say these are safer for foreigners. You will also see some blue taxis at the airport and at hotels which charge a fixed fee rather than use a meter. This will always be higher than a metered fare.

The Santiago metro is an excellent system which is easy for foreigners to use. We bought a ticket and boarded the correct train after only 30 minutes in the city. There are several lines but the two of most interest to visitors will be line 1 which was built under the Alameda (the main east-west road through the city) and then east through Providencia in the 1970s and the more recent Plaza de Armas to Quinta Normal leg of line 5.

In 1968 the decision was taken to build a rubber-tyred metro system with 5 lines and totalling 60 km. In 2009, the total length of the network is 102.4 km with 104 stations.

The Metro sells tickets from 6:00 to 23:00 Monday through Friday, 6:30 to 22:30 on Saturdays, and 8:00 to 22:30 on Sundays and holidays. The fare depends on the time that you use the Metro. The cost of a ticket in the Horario Punta (rush hour, 7.00-9.00 and 18.00-20.00) is P460 (approx. US$0.85); in the Horario Valle (off-peak hours, 6.30-7.00, 9.00-18.00, 20.00-20.45, and all day weekends and holidays) is P400 (approx. US$0.75); and in the Horario Bajo (low-use hours, 6:00-6:30 and 20:45-23:00) is P380 (approx. US$0.70). Senior citizens (65 and older) and students pay P130 (US $0.25), except for the rush hour when senior citizens pay the normal amount of P460.

When you walk into a metro station, there are generally maps of the entire metro network very clearly displayed. The lines are named by the last station that they reach in a given direction, so for example, Line 1 east is named Escuela Militar, and Line 1 west is named San Pablo. So once you know where you are going, just swipe your ticket and head toward the line you want to get on. Transferring lines is also simple. When you get off a train in a transfer station, you will see a sign that says something like "Cambiar a Linea 4 – La Cisterna".

Art is a major element in some of the stations. The station Universidad de Chile has a giant mural created by Mario Toral representing the history of the country. Other pieces of art are in Baquedano (featuring modern art and a concert space), Bellas Artes (multimedia art), Santa Lucía (a gift made by the Lisbon Metro), La Moneda (with realistic painting representing typical landscape), and various other stations.

My experiences on the Metro were always very positive. The service is clean, safe, and very fast. You may have some trouble during peak travel times, however. These times bring large crowds and cramped station platforms that quickly fill the subway cars to capacity. However, during non-peak times, the Metro is a pleasure to ride and a great way for visitors to get around the city.