Santiago in General

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So, right now Santiago is rather Calor. Though, I have to say that last, what was it? Sunday? was menos mal than it has been for the past few days, as there was actually a breeze on that day. But for now, women are fainting outside of the Lider (the big supermarket chain here) and making it impossible to enter, apparently because of the heat. And on the crowded, airless Metro one day, my roomate almost fainted. And she´s from Arizona, so you´d think that she´d be pretty heat tolerant. But the meto does get pretty horrible during the business hours, with people squished up against the windows, like some kind of nightmare scene. You sort of sqeeze and push youre way in there when the doors open, knocking around businessmen and college students as you jostle with everyone for a stable place (anywhere you wont get squished by the doors when you here th "BEEP!" of them starting to close) while trying to avoid pregnant women and old people. They get the chairs.

Also these days you see alot of people wearing little face masks, trying, I suppose, to strain out la contaminacion. Of which there is alot. Most days you can barely see the outline of the Andes from Providencia because of the evil looking haze in front of them. Its a shame that in one of the best situated cities on earth, you cant even see what is supposed to make it that beautifull (its not like in the postards, with the Andes clear in the background, rising over the city like some kind of god). Sometimes if you hike up the hills in the middle of the city to the gigantic white statue of the Virgin that overlooks the city, and its a clear day (its the best in the morning) you can get a fairly good view of the Andes. But other than that I think you probably have to get out of the actual city for a view. Its sad; first all the highrises are in the way, and then behind the highrises, he smog obscures them even more.

Im going to miss the food in Santiago alot, because as a vegetarian its hard to find place in most towns that have a vegetarian option other than a couple of pieces of lettuce and a hard boiled egg. There is El Huerto (I think it means "the garden"), off Providencia, I think, that is my favorite. They have juice and guacamole and brownies con helado with warm and gooey insides and Indian curries and all manner of really good vegetarian food. Theyve been written up in several newspapers in the states as being excellent, and Ive hear that they are the best vegetarian restraunt in Sudamerica. They also tend to have really nice artwork on the inside walls of the restraunt, and its on a quiet street, so sitting outside is really nice as well. Every once in a while musicians come up and play flute or/and guitar in front of the restraunt, which is nice, even for 500 pesos, and also every once in a while, an old women comes up saying "Tengo cancer..." and asking for money, and then also theres the kids that try to sell stickers, and so you have to give them a bit of money, too... I also really like the staff at EL Huerto. Its mostly really nice exotic looking women, or men with dreads.

The other veg restraunt I know of is really close to El Huerto, off the main street again, maybe 2 streets down from El Huerto. Its really good, and has more conventional vegetarian food, like veggie burgers and hot chocolate soy milk, as well as more interesting food, like good lentil soups. If you sit in the back on the Oriental-looking couches you can watch the cooks cooking, which is really neat, or you can sit outside on chairs shaped like fruit (there isnt alot of shade outside, though, unlike El Huerto). People dont come up and beg there beause there is a little hedge that surrounds the outside area, and the staff is really friendly. If you go there more than once, theyl probably recognize you.

I think my third favorite restraunt, just on the basis of its fried tofu in honey sauce and white chocolate mousse, is Santa Remedio, which happens to be just down from my language school, ECELA. It has a cute little logo, thats like a pill, with a woman with flowing blonde hair dividing up the middle. You can see this logo alot around the city on various posters. They seem to support alot of electronic music festivals.
Its a very interesting looking place, with a bar on the inside, and red walls, and high wooden chairs around high little glass and metal tables, and barbie sculpture things right as you enter, to the left. In one area inside, there is a zebra striped couch and some plush furniture thats nice to sit at. Outside there is a big planet looking metal ball, and lots more tables in front of it, and then behind the tables theres a bunch of rooms with red couches surrounding the insides and a table in the middle that are awesome for bigger group. Also, inside there is a painting that if you touch a dot on it, it all the metal things inside it move around. At first I only would notice it out of the corner of my eye, just as it would stop moving, and I totally thought I was hallucinating. Really it turned out that Kelly was bumping the dot by accident with her back (the chairs are high!). But yeah, Santa Remedio is cute, fun, and delicious! And it supports the arts.

I also recently went to the giant fruit market called La Vega (its a bit past Bellavista, or you can get there on the yellow line of the metro). It was really neat. There were huge piles of old cabbages and other veggies on the ground getting shoveled into carts, and in rubbish between the stalls, with babies and mangy dogs playing amongst them. And there was piles and piles of fruit everywhere, with the venders calling out "Estoy loco!" because their wares are so cheap. And they are cheap. And good, to. I bought a kilo of cherries for 800 pesos that were excellent, and a kilo (4) of fuji apples for 800 pesos as well (800 is a bit like 1.50 of dollars). It was definitely more real feeling than Providencia, Santiago. It was dirty and bright and hot and smelled. I really liked it. There was always stuff going on, people moving and shouting, kids crying, the potatoe-colored cat sitting on the potatoes, and the women selling peppers and spices, and the man selling slabs of marble, and all the shiny fruit you could ever want. I think they had piles of pretty much everything, 2 types of palta (avacado; there is a big smooth skinned buttery kind, and a smaller, rough skinned less-good kind, that is more common), several types of apples, huge green charymoyas. And it was huge. There must have been 150 little veggie and fruit stands under the huge tarp, at least. Under other tarps they sell meat and other things. The meat smelled.
About the meat in Santiago and Chile in general; I still am not used to almost walking into the rack of dried, hooved, hairy pigs legs that they seem to have near the fruit and veggie area of every Lider.

Hmmm, what else should I say? Sometimes small towns dont accept even Visa credit cards, so if you head out to a town, like, say, the surf town of Pichu Lemu, bring alot of cash with you. Last time I went there, none of the ATM´s would accept my credit card, even thought it DID have money on it. That as almost a disaster (luckily a friend showed up when we were there, and we borrowed money from her). Mmm, and Pichu Lemu also has a really good burrito stand. Thats almost reason enough to go there again. I miss Californian burritos.

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Comments

[james st. james]

el huerto
a 'huerto' is an orchard. i'm not a vegetarian but i'm not a huge carnivore either. i'm surprised you've had trouble finding vegetarian food. it's always plentiful in most restaurants. if you specifically ask for vegetarian food, many people will just think you want a salad since they don't often notice when the food they make contains no meat, like the lentils, or "porotos con riendas" (beans and noodles) to give you two examples. i don't know what you mean about not liking chilean salads. they're the best salads i ever had. there's nothing better than a tomatoe and onion salad. the beets are really good too. ¿have you tried the bean salads? they're grrrreat! whatever your reasons, i always pitty strict vegetarians b/c they miss out on the best part of any country's cuisine. you really don't get the full experience of travelling in a country since so much of the country's tradition revolves around the food they eat. you are what you eat, as they say. good luck with the rest of your trip and i hope you eat well outside of santiago.