How much time do you have? and other Santiago, Chile Things to Do Tips

Santiago is often dismissed as a rather boring, mostly modern, city with little of the glamour or colour of other South American cities. Disastrous earthquakes (the last as recent as 1960) have seen many of its historic buildings destroyed; internal migration, rebuilding and rapid economic growth in the second half of the 20th century has left a legacy of dubious buildings and urban sprawl and lying as it does in a bowl between two mountain ranges (the Andes and the coastal Cordillera) it is very prone to smog - all factors which can lead visitors to restrict their time here to simply a quick stop before moving on other parts of the country - the lakes and mountains of Patagonia, the high deserts of the north or maybe Andean winter sports. I actually liked it right from the start and subsequent visits only increased my liking for the place. Of course the time you have there may well depend on your overall plans, but if you can take the time (I'd say 3 at a minimum preferably with one weekend day included) to explore and get to know the place, I think you'll find it has much to offer.

Although it is a sprawling place of 6 million people, generally the most interesting and attractive parts of the city are contained within quite a small area. You could see a lot of the central area - museums, markets, cathedral, churches, the main squares and major buildings in a couple of days. One would be a real rush and you wouldn't have time to do more than take the most cursory look at the highlights. A third day - Saturday or Sunday if possible - would let you join Santiagans at play on Cerro Cristobal and out at the Dominican handicraft village.

More time to spare? Valparaiso is a great day trip, as is a day spent in the Cajon de Maipo up in the mountains . You could take a wine tour too but you could well find there is more of the city you'd like to see. I know that's what I'll be doing if I'm lucky enough toreturn to Chile.

Getting around is easy enough. The metro is efficient, extensive, cheap and safe. Taxis are plentiful and usually fine but rip-offs are always a hazard - they happen everywhere.- and all the usual cautionary advice applies. Walking is a generally a pleasure - the centre can be crowded but the strees are almost all tree-lined and buzzing with life. Street crime (other than pickpockets in the usual crowded places) is rare but use your common sense and stay away from deserted streets, especially at night.

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Cerro Santa Lucia rises up in the very heart of Santiago, winding paths and stairways leading up through lush green gardens to a small plaza where an old city gate faces a memorial sculpture of the Mapuche Indian leader, Caupolican, who led his people against Pedro de Valdivia and his conquistadores. The Mapuche knew the hill as Huelén - a place of sadness. Maybe they couldread the future.

When Valdivia proclaimed the founding of the city of Santiago de Nueva Extramadura in December 12, 1541 at the nearby Plaza de Armas, he named the little hill for the saint whose day fell on that date.

Elaborate tiers of yellow and white colonnades known as Castillo Hidalgo and the fountains of Terazza Neptuno form the entrance on the corner of the Alameda, from here you can take steps and stairs all the way up to the top or the longer, and somewhat less strenuous, winding pathway. There's also an elevator at the other end of the park for those less energetically inclined.

There's a small chapel on the summit, the burial place of Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna, the man responsible for the creation of the park in 1872 - until Ben got to work, the hill had been neglected for centuries. The views of the city and the mountains beyond from the top are spectacular (don't be tempted to take in the city's night scene from here though - the park is lovely by day but has a bad reputation by night).
Visitors are required to sign an entry book.

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The lovely red-walled church of Saint Francis (Iglesia de San Francisco) is the oldest building in all Santiago. It has stood on the Almeda for more than 400 years and whilst it has seem much rebuilding as a result of earthquake damage (Santiago has been severely damaged by earthquakes numerous times, the most recent –and devastating – in 1960) it remains, first and foremost, as a functioning church in this most Catholic of countries as well as being an important historical marker.
The museum housed here is probably best sought out only by those with a passion for church history. Its focus is the history of the Franciscans in the country, with lots of religious art, ecclesiastical vestments and the like. It’s open daily between 10am- 6pm, but closes for lunch between 1 and 3. There is a small admission charge.

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Address: Ave Bernardo O'Higgins
Directions: Barrio Paris Londres

Having been built to function as Santiago's Royal Mint but, following independence, for the next 110 years, from 1848 to 1958, the elegant white palace known as La Moneda was the home of Chile's Presidents. The president no longer lives here but the building remains the country's official seat of government.

It lies between the Alameda to the south and the enormous Plaza de la Constitution on the north side. There is a public entry on the north side to the inner courtyards, where you'll find fountains, orange trees and some very smartly uniformed guards - they're police officers, not soldiers, despite the jackboots and high peaked hats.

Looking at its pristine facade, it's hard to believe that only 35 years ago this is the building that was bombed to a ruin in air attacks ordered by General Pinochet in the coup that saw the deposing and murder of the democratically-elected Communist president Salvador Allende. The generals are gone now and as Allende surveys the scene from his plinth right beside the palace, flowers regularly declare " Allende Vive" (photo 5)

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Address: Alameda
Directions: Metro: La Moneda
Open 1000 -1800 every day, though official visits and government business may see it closed periodically.
Entrance is free

It's just a few blocks between the Plaza de la Constitucion and the Plaza de Armas - Satiago's two main squares, you could walk it in 5 or 10 minutes - if you didn't stop along the way but, with the chance of catching a regular ceremony, some of the city's finest buildings and the best museum along the way, it could take you all morning

Twelve tall flagpoles flying the Chilean flag make a bright splash of colour at the southern end of the Plaza de la Constitucion in front of La Moneda - the Presidential Palace. The Changing the Guard ceremony takes place beneath them at 10 am every other day while the statue of the murdered President Salvador Allende gazes down from his plinth.

Just north of here you'll find the the Tribunales de Justica occupying one whole block. Show some ID and you'll be allowed entry to have a look at the inside. Across the road, the neo-Classical ex-Congresso Nacional (now the Foreign Ministry building - the Congress has been moved to an ugly modern edifice in Valparaiso) makes a great photo with its snow white pillars and lovely gardens. You can only look at this one, there's no admission except on business, though the gardens are open to the public.

The Plaza de Armas is just around the corner but, before you go there, do take time to visit the Museo de Arte Precolombiano - it's absolutely wonderful - undoubtedly most important museum in all Chile. Don't miss it!

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Updated, January 16, 2008

Housed in the former colonial Customs House, Santiago's Pre-Columbian Museum (Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino) is a treasure house of extraordinary and beautiful artifacts representing the four and a half thousand years of civilzation that existed in Meso and South America before the arrival of Europeans. Encompassing regions stretching from Mexico in the north, east to the Amazon Basin and to the Southern Andes, the collection is unequalled anywhere for its artistic and aesthetic merits and depiction of the marvellous diversity of the cultures of this world. Magnificent Nazca textiles, the colours as clear and bright as the day they were made 1000 years ago; ceramics vigorously depicting men, animals and strange hybrid creatures, often with great humour; stone carvings of gods; a showcase of quirky hats - all this and much more.

The museum is very well laid out and the signage is excellent. Even if museums are not your thing, you should see this one. As well as the permanent collection there are regular special exhibitions. I've seen two of these now - the first on quipus (see the next tip) and, more recently, hats. Both of them blew me away with the fascination of their subjects, the amazing condition and beauty of the artifacts and the sophistication and elegance of their presentation.

The exhibition of hats has finished now but you can still catch it take a virtual tour here, the text is in Spanish but the images speak for themselves. Click on the hats and enter another world.

The current exhibition really packs a punch. Entitled Morir para gobernar it tells of dominant forces of sex and war in Pre-Colombian Meso-America through the medium of the superbly graphic ceramic art of the region - if you're heading for Santiago - don't miss it!

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Address: Bandera 361
Directions: One block from Plaza de Armas

The website is in Spanish with an English information section
Website: http://www.precolombino.cl/es/index.html

As well as its magnificent permanent collection, the Pre-Columbian Museum in Santiago stages regular special exhibitions.

We were lucky enough to catch one about quipu, the lost language of the Inca.
Long assumed to be simply (if highly
sophisticatedly) a tallying system, these incredibly complex arrangements of knotted strings are now recognized as a proper recorded language - one of the five fundamental forms of recorded language that have no root in any other form of writing. (The others are Egyptian hieroglyphs, cuneiform, Chinese and the Mayan's pictographs)

It was a fascinating exhibition, beautifully presented and labelled - catching it was a real highlight of our visit to Santiago.
I hope you will be as lucky with whatever is on show when you are there. Do check it out.

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Address: Bandera 361
Directions: The museum's website includes excellent overviews of both the current and past temporary exhibitions (Expos Temporales), in Spanish but well illustrated and easy to interpret.
Website: http://www.precolombino.cl/es/index.html

The Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago we see today is the fifth such church to stand here on the Plaza des Armas. Four previous churches had been destroyed by fire and earthquake, and although this church was begun in 1748 and consecrated in 1775, it was not completed until the late 19th century when its towers were added. Its baroque interior features 3 long naves with barrel vaulting and there is some fine decoration, most notably the main altar of marble, bronze and lapis lazuli that came from Germany.
There is the inevitable museum – this one the Museo del Arte Sagrado (the Museum of Sacred Art) with yet more religious works on display, including some fine silver left behind by the Jesuits when they were forced to leave the country. Entry is free.
The entrance to the cathedral faces onto the Plaza, lovely in the Spring when the jacarandas are out . There are some great photos to be taken any time of year though of the reflection of the baroque curves of the old building in the glass walls of the modern city buildings in the street beside it.

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Address: Plaza de Armas

All Santiago spends some time here in the Plaza de Armas at some stage or another. This is the city's historic centre, each side bounded by interesting buildings. The 18th century Catedral Metropolitana stands facing east - as churches must. The north side is where you will find the early 19th century Palacio de la Real Audencia - home now to the Museo Historico Nacional - and the 18th century Town Hall. The streets behind the cathedral house more interesting colonial buildings whilst exiting the square to the south will take you into the city centre's main shopping area.

The plaza is kilómetro cero, the point from which all distances in the country measured. It really is the heart of the city with its shady trees, fountains, statues and sculptures, bright balloon sellers, hot dog and drink stands, seats for sitting and watching the world go by. Why not join the locals for a while?

Exit the plaza in the south-west corner and you'll find yourself in Paseo Ahumada, Santiago's busiest shopping street, a tree-lined pedestrian way that is always crowded.

In the south-east corner you'll find the Casa Colorada - a lovely suvivor from colonial times, now home to the Museo de Santiago. It's open every day but Monday.

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Whilst the Cathedral takes up the east side of the Plaza de Armas, and small shops and restaurants most of the south and west sides, the north side is lined with a succession of very grand buidlings indeed. Setting the scene is the great white wedding cake of the Correo Central - the main Post Office, just as splendid on the inside as the outside.

Next comes the grand colonial building, the Real Audiencia, that now houses the National History Museum. Some of the country's most important offices have occupied this building since it was erected in 1807- under Spanish rule it was the Royal Courts of Justice, with Independence it became the country's first Congress building.

Last in the row is the city's Town Hall - the Municipalidad. Set into the ground in front of it is a a bronze plaque showing the plan of the city in 1646.

Two other favourites with photographers are the buildings across the road from the Correo - the first a tall tower of glass and steel that reflects the cathedral in a fascinating juxtaposition of old and new. The other is the 19th century fire station - the Cuartel de Bomberos - its bell still hanging in the bell tower on the roof.

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