Some things about Santiago

6 min readApr 3, 2017

Last month, me and the fam spent a month in Santiago, Chile. I worked. We played. It was amazing and we didn’t really want to come back.

Here’s some things I noticed. It’s worth pointing out that my reference point is Vancouver. In the last couple years I’ve been to Taipei, NYC, Costa Rica and SF but my real compass in most of these observations is Vancouver.

You can see pictures from our trip (like the one above) on Instagram.

Cigarettes

A LOT of people smoke. Including more women then I think I’m used to seeing. Which is odd cause I don’t think of smoking as a male dominated sport and yet I had a strong sense of heavy lady smoking.

Tattoos

Never having been to South America, we were expecting some traditional values. At the surface level, as deep as we got in a month, in mostly Santiago a massive city of 5+ million, we saw none of that. This included a ton of tattoos, and significantly more neck tattoos than Vancouver.

Elevator Size

Tiny. In general even for a big city, it didn’t feel like people were all up in my bubble. Personal space felt analogous to Canada. Except in the elevators! Not that I was in dozens, but every elevator I went in was about half the size of what you’d expect.

PDAs

People are super down with making out. On the low end of the scale was just couples being in general very touchy. On the other end of the spectrum was a couple who were weirdly aggressive about actual face grabbing in the mall. In between was tons of people just kissing all over the place. In parks, on trains, everywhere.

Sushi (and other food things)

Sushi was everywhere. I claim it was as ubiquitous as Vancouver, Rachel says I’m wrong. When I checked out the menus it was about twice as expensive as Vancouver so I never tried it, but friends there said it was mostly slathered in avocado and mayonnaise.

Side note, many dishes in restaurants are described as Italian Style, which means covered in avocado, mayonnaise and tomato sauce. Which you’ll notice are the colours of the Italian flag.

Side side note, you can also order many dishes poor style (A lo Pobre) which means add fries, onions and a fried egg.

Side side side note. A lo Pobre as a separate dish is kind of like their local poutine. Many times saw groups of people go out for beer and a mountain of A lo Pobre.

[EDIT: Apparently as a stand alone dish this magic is called Chorrillana.

Chorrillana is a typical Chilean dish. Consisting of a plate of sliced beef with frenchfries, scrambled or fried eggs, and fried onions. Because of its large size, it is usually served as a dish to share. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorrillana

Pointed out on Facebook- thanks!]

Lastly, the Chileans eat a ton of sandwiches and empanadas. They’re both everywhere. Standard Empanada is beef, olives and eggs. And then Pizza, Pasta and Burgers are available all over the place.

And Gelato. It was hot, and there was Gelato restaurants all over the place.

Cup Sizes

America is stupid on this. Order a small drink at a fast food restaurant and you get something big enough to bathe in. Canada is on the same path, though slightly restrained.

Chile is not on this path. Small means small. Big means big. Ridiculously grotesquely large isn’t a thing. In coffee or pop. It’s weird. And really good.

Also, normal drip coffee is really hard to find. Coffee shops aren’t but there is no “medium, medium” or it’s equivalent nearly anywhere, including at Starbucks.

Green City

Santiago is basically the same distance as the equator from LA. It’s about 90 minutes (by car) from the coast and sits in the shadow of the mind boggling Andes. (And I’m even used to living in the shadow of mountains.)

It’s also weirdly green. People water things constantly and as a result it’s lush. Even residential apartment buildings had way more balconies filled with beautiful plants. In the medians of every major road are shaded parks and bike paths. Playgrounds everywhere.

It seems like it should be a desert, but it felt almost fresh in the peak of summer heat.

The architecture was gorgeous. Not only because the buildings were beautiful but because they were varied. My general assumptions is that cities on earth are homogenizing. New buildings, both commercial and residential are all slight variations on the same glass tower. This phenomena has made Vancouver’s skyline monotonous but my worry is that it’s conquering the world.

What Santiago has, that Vancouver doesn’t is an extensive history of tall buildings. So there’s already hundreds of cool buildings from the last 70 (maybe) years with a variety of styles, not all locked away in an isolated neighbourhood like the west end.

No 7–11. 😔

I have a thing for 7-11. It’s weird. I just love it. They don’t have them in Santiago. Sigh.

But Big John’s is everywhere.

Kindness

When Rachel was pregnant, and would ride the bus, the classic Vancouver maneuver would be to desperately not make eye contact so as not to have to give up your seat. It was pathetic and constant. Ask any transit riding Vancouverite who’s either old or pregnant. This is a thing.

This would have been unimaginable in Santiago. We consistently had two or three different people offer us their seats, just because we were traveling with a three and seven year old. EVEN WHEN THERE WAS EMPTY SEATS ON THE TRAIN.

People don’t stand at intersections walking up and down asking for free money. People preform amazing tricks at intersections. From blackbelt level juggling to breakdancing to hoola-hooping, alone and in groups, the people earn their keep.

And their keep is given. I never once saw them not get one car to give them a couple coins. Never more than one car mind you. It’s like there was a strong but non-specific social contract amongst drivers that one person would cover this guy.