Santiago
is a hip, happenin' city with lots of barrios to be explored. Of
course every barrio has it's own "Plaza de Armas" (leafy shady park
area). Parks are popular spots to socialize, especially among couples
in love. We walk through a beautiful park in Santiago Centro and it's
loaded with loving couples mauling each other on park benches, grassy
lawn areas, and against light posts and trees. In Barrio Brazil's
Plaza de Armas, we sign petitions with Amnesty International to protect
the indigenous peoples way of living in Brazil. Hanging out on the
streets of Barrio Lasterna we indulge in fine crafted local beers and
cafe mochas that are really an espresso shot with a rich melted
chocolate bar. As we sit at the cafes we are entertained by street
performers. By far, the most bizarre is the short round man with a big
drum strapped on his back, he's out in the middle of the street
spinning wildly in circles, blocking traffic and making a horrendous
noise. As with all the other Latin American countries we've visited,
ice cream shops far outnumber grocery or liquor stores, and people eat
ice cream at all times of the day and night. Tiny empanada shops churn
out the most tasty pastries filled with all types of options - meat,
veggie, cheese... they're delicious, and seem to always become at least
one of our daily meals.
In
Centro Santiago in the very huge Plaza de Armas, there's a gigantic and
imposing Christmas tree, sponsored by Coke - the entire thing is one
big advertisement. It's sad that such a prominent Latin American
capital city can't seem to sponsor their own tree, and keep the
corporate commercialism out of the town center, and the highly revered
religious holiday. Then again, we are in the Financial hub of
Santiago. Surrounding us is a sea of consumerism and especially at
this time, people are in a frenzied state of mass consumption, just as
we'd see in any big city around the world. The independent business
person is out selling wrapping paper and services, santa hats and every
imaginable decoration for christmas trees.
Santiago,
like other big cities around the world, is plagued by graffiti bandits.
Some of the graffiti is artistic, and others political slander. We
see the typical anti-Bush slogans.. here it's Bush's face with mickey
mouse ears and the words underneath his picture "Disney War." It's
relatively tame anti-Bush rhetoric here, compared with what we have
seen in Central America and other South American countries like
Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, where they outright hate the man, and call
him TANTO (idiot) or ASINO (killer), or WORST PRESIDENT (coincidentally
they also have on the same wall, graffiti of two stick figures peeing
on Pinochet, so at least they are equally as critical of their own poor
leaders).
Another
specialty shop, specific to Santiago, highlights the focus on male
clientele here. They are called coffee shops "with legs." Literally,
downtown streets are loaded with slick looking coffee shops with a ton
of men inside and out. Taking a closer look through the glass windows
reveals women in tight spandex mini dresses serving coffee behind tiny
counters. It's quite a scene. Finding a "regular" coffee shop that I
as a woman can go in, is challenging, in the midst of ones with legs.
Santiago
is similar to Europe and the look and feel is more similar to a
developed European city versus a developing South American country. We
had honestly expected something much different, and are pleasantly
surprised with what we've stumbled into here, although we do miss the
local indigenous culture that has surrounded us for our travels thus
far in South America.
