My one-day-stopover is dedicated to Neruda-esque pursuits - checking out the street art, of course.
Old-fashioned scales ...
The techniques are traditional Chilean but the presentation is pure drama. The food comes on rock, in conches, on branches, anything but plates.
Some by established painters, others by anonymous artists working in the night.
I'm staying at The Aubrey, a two minute walk from La Chascona. Formerly Pablo Neruda's house built for his mistress, La Chascona is now a museum of the treasures and knick knacks he collected. The neighborhood, Bellavista, is artsy, vibrant and decidedly bohemian.
This final street art is a pixelated portrait using tiny tiles (created by Pixel Art) - very hard to decipher with the naked eye, but perfectly formed in the photograph on Cat's iPhone! While we have a lot of fun with this one, I lament that even street graffiti is getting digital.
If you go, check out the art in the streets of Dardignac, Bombero Nuñez, Pio Nono and Purisima.
This is where I meet up with Cat Allen of Foto Ruta Santiago. She's charming, talented, fun, and knows her way around her adopted city. The perfect guide for a photo walk.
Art. Fish. Poetry.
Santiago, Chile.
Cat gets us a prized table at an upstairs restaurant with a view of the Mercado. And we settle down to a Chilean meal of Ceviche de Reineta, Machas a la Parmesana, Calamares Pil Pil and Pastel de Jaiba. All the seafood comes from the market below us.
Santiago is Neruda-land, an unsung city with hidden cultural and gastronomic surprises. Long ago, someone described it to me as the 'cleanest European city they had ever visited', which sounds boring but Santiago isn't. There are no Pre-Incan ruins here, nor an abundance of Spanish conquistador relics. No, it doesn't have the edgy, electric buzz of Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro. Santiago is just a happy melting pot of old and new, tradition and progress, art and food, that needs some effort to be discovered.
Colorful, intricate, thought-provoking, and a clever mix of hip hop and political slant.
Shuttered storefronts are now opening for lunch and early cocktails, vintage chairs and tables are beginning to appear magically on sidewalks, as are chalkboard menus, and loud strains of music from various cafe-bars are starting to vie for attention.
“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul.” -Pablo Neruda
We’re close enough now for a late lunch at the quintessential and recently renovated, wrought-iron Art Nouveau-styled 19th century Mercado Central.
"Para que nada nos separe, que nada nos una." - Pablo Neruda
(Calling all Spanish speakers to help me translate these words. The closest I can get to is - "So that nothing that ties us together, separates us, nothing.")
At Mercado Central Santiago, I find happy vendors and quirky tip jars ..
I end the day at Boragó - considered by many as one of the best restaurants in Latin America. The ingredients consist of unusual herbs, edible flowers, wild berries and mushrooms foraged from the wilds of Patagonia and the slopes of the Andes.
My favorite - a dessert called White Strawberries + Snow. On a plate constructed of ice, is a scoop of ’snow' made with shredded frozen sheep's milk cream, on top of which is a winter garden of white Chilean strawberries. You get the picture.
“Someday, somewhere - anywhere, unfailingly, you'll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.”
― Pablo Neruda
(Photos and captions by VJ Singh)
.. ... and curious-looking sea creatures.
The street art in Bellavista and neighboring Recoleta is, in a word, impressive.