Saturday in Santiago: Cerro San Cristóbal
Cerro San Cristóbal is one of the most commonly mentioned tourist attractions in Santiago. Take the funicular up, check out the statue of the Virgin Mary, enjoy the views. Except this last bit can be hard to do on many days, thanks to the lovely layer of smog and haze that often sits over the [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: La Moneda
Suggesting a visitor to Chile go see La Moneda is hardly revolutionary. It’s the presidential palace, and as such, I’m pretty sure it features prominently in every guidebook’s listing of Santiago must-see attractions. Plus, it’s pretty. And it’s historical, as the site of bombing during the 1973 military coup. It’s now even prettier thanks to a [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: Fiesta del Vino de Pirque
Continuing our tradition, my in-laws and I hit up Pirque’s Fiesta del Vino again this year. If you’re reading this in Santiago on Sunday, stop reading right now, go straight to Pirque (the 74 MetroBus from metro stop Bellavista La Florida will get you there for $500), and proceed to have a wonderful time. Then [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: Bar The Clinic
What would you expect from a bar called The Clinic? If you’re thinking one of those themed places where drinks come in test tubes and the waitstaff are dressed as nurses, think again. Santiago’s Bar The Clinic gets its name from a dictator, not a doctor. Back in 1998, Pinochet was arrested in England at [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: Lai Thai
There still aren’t too many Thai restaurants in Santiago, but more and more are popping up, some in the least likely places. Hidden in the back of an old-fashioned commercial gallery lies the Providencia outpost of a Thai restaurant I kept hearing about: Lai Thai. While this neighborhood is a bit more upscale than the [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: Parque Bicentenario
When you have a dog, you tend to become familiar with nearby parks and plazas. You might even get to know some not-so-nearby parks if they’re worth the trip. Parque Bicentenario in Vitacura certainly is. This park – surprisingly enough intended to celebrate Chile’s bicentennial – has been open for several years now with plenty [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: Madame Tusan
The latest Gastón Acurio restaurant to hit Santiago is Madame Tusan. It might seem like a deviation from the renowned chef’s usual fare: what is the man who made his name cooking Peruvian food doing with a Chinese restaurant? Madame Tusan is a chifa, a restaurant serving a hybrid of Peruvian and Chinese food. Rodolfo [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: Piscina Antilén
The only time I’ve ever been to a public pool is when I was a child vacationing in the South of France. Yes, I am aware of how that sentence makes me sound. But, until last weekend, it was true. I grew up in a part of California where it was normal that many of [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: Mercado Paula Gourmet
Mercado Paula Gourmet is an annual food festival that we make a point to hit up every year. The entrance fee is a little steep at $5.000 (US$10), but for a fun afternoon with plenty of free samples, it’s worth it. This year, there were the usual stand-bys, by which I mean plenty of olive [...]
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Saturday in Santiago: The Grand Hyatt
Way back when, I asked you all to vote for me in a Kiwi Collection contest to win my dream vacation, an African Safari. While the winner of the vacation was chosen by random drawing – and obviously I did not win, or else you would have heard about it with copious !!!!!!!!s – your [...]
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