Santiago on Sunday

Cafés are certainly a great place to soak up a particular city´s street life, and Buonaroma Café near the Tobalaba Metro station is as good a place as any to watch Santiaguinos pass the time on a warm Sunday morning in January.

A handful of middle aged men were drinking cappuccinos while reading the newspaper and smoking their cigarettes. An elderly couple was talking with their grandchildren on their cell phone. And a woman with perfectly coiffed hair shamlessly flirted with the handsome waiter after she finished her beer (before noon.)

Santiaguinos literally abandon their city on summer weekends, but they trickle back to the capital on Sunday night.

Bellas Artes slowly came to life after sunset. Young (and some gay) Santiaguinos enthusiastically talked among themselves over a beer, a coffee, a milk shake or a small sandwich along Calle Monjitas near el Parque Forestal and Santa Lucía. The garbage truck that suddenly pulled up alongside our table brought our late dinner to an abrupt end, but at least the city of Santiago bothers to collect its trash (unlike a certain city in which this traveler lives.)

A stroll through The Clinic on Monjitas provided a kitsch-filled end to the evening. Hundreds of Santiaguinos were enjoying their beer and late-night snacks al fresco or on the back patio. The restaurant´s irreverency, however, was it´s most charming asset. And the poster of President Sebastián Piñera as the Rainman was simply priceless.



Overlooking Santiago from a friend´s roof near the la Escuela Militar.



Santiago from Cerro San Cristóbal.



Sugar cubes at Café del Museo.



The copper facade of Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral in Santiago. This was featured in the New York Times on Saturday, Jan. 8.



Street art in Bella Vista.



Mocachino at Buonavista Café near El Bosque.



Viven los 33 mineros en Bella Vista.