It’s time to look back at Santiago de Chile. Any city that came after Buenos Aires would have a hard time, I thought. BA was one of my highlights. I didn’t really want to leave at all.
Santiago though won me over fast. Its people are open and friendly, the city is easy going and fun to explore. It’s hard to describe the difference between both.
Where Buenos Aires is grandiose, big and just oozing its former importance and money, Santiago is more cool understatement. It iss not as huge as BA, the buildings more modern, the houses smaller, one-family buildings, at least in my area in Providencia.
The nightlife of Santiago though can definitely compete with BA, at least during the weekends.
I also met a lot of nice and interesting people there, who opened their doors for dinner, showed me their preferred neighborhoods, bars, cafés… So after the three weeks in Chile were coming to a close, I wished I just had one more week to spend, to see all the things I had not yet seen.
I have been in quite a slow mood in Chile, spending a lot of days not doing much, or just hanging, walking, eating…. But I guess I just cannot be 100% active and running all the time in every city.
So here’s my best-of list of Santiago.
Best part/scene/place: Lastarria& Bellas Artes. It beats Bellavista and Providencia, albeit just close. While Bellavista is an amazing place to go out in the weekend, I preferred Lastarria and Bellas Artes to stroll and hang, and watch people go by.
Best drink (non-alcoholic): Fresh Mint & Ginger Lemonade
Best drink (alcoholic): Chilean wine in Parque Balmaceda at night.
Best restaurant: La Jardin in Providencia.
Best bar: That little karaoke bar in the basement, reigned by a trashy drag queen.
Most visited place: Café Calafquen, definitely. My – nearly – daily spot for blogging and an iced frappuccino.
Best movie: I didn’t make it to the cinema this time around.
Song for Santiago: Two oldies: A close tie between Robyn’s Hang with me and P!nk’s So what?
Best speciality: Pisco Sour. The Peruvian version with the foam. The Chilean version is less sweet though.
Best sight: The museum of human rights.
Most underrated/overrated: The city’s nightlife and scene is definitely the most underrated in South America (well, as little as I have seen of it). I can’t really say what would be overrated – I simply had not much of an idea about Santiago before I came here. But I was so busy!
The most beautiful place: Parque Forestal.
The reasons to come back: The unfinished stories there… the people I met… I will be back… And I have a list of things to do and see already: Seeing the city from Cerro San Cristobal (the last days when I wanted to go the city was invisible under smog…), Blondie Nightclub on a Wednesday, Fausto Club on a Sunday, the La Vega Market, Parque Bicentenario and Parque Quinta Normal, and (shamefully) the museums Bellas Artes and GAM.