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Published: June 23rd 2008
Santiago
Brendan and religious street art.We flew from New Zealand to Santiago, Chile for the next step of our journey. Strangely, our flight left one hour earlier than scheduled and arrived one hour later than scheduled. Strong headwinds, I assume. Due to the time differences it was early evening local time but 6 in the morning by our body clocks.
Given the jet lag, and the fact that we were only using Santiago as a stop over on our way to Buenos Aires, we did nothing too adventurous and generally took it easy.
We were there on a Sunday and assumed that things would be very quiet and most of the shops closed etc. In fact, it turned out to be far from the case. Shops and cafes were open, but apart from that we stumbled upon competitive religious art. At lest, thats how it appeared to us.
Near the main shopping street nuns were busy laying out two continuous chalk lines about a metre apart. They then subdivided the strip created into individual rectangles. Each rectangle was then allocated to a group of people who used paper stencils to create shapes of angels, churchs, etc. The shapes created were then filled in
Santiago
Brendan in one time zone, Santiago park in another. with what I took to be coloured sawdust. There appeared to be schoolgroups, neighbourhoods, professional societies etc taking part. We were not there long enough to see how the judging, if any, went but it was an interesting experience.
Santiago sufered from smog so we decided to go to the park for a respite from it. As we approached the main gate there was a hut and people were signing a book. We paid no attention and went to walk through the gate whereupon a security gate called out to us. It turned out that we had to write our names into the book along with our passport numbers. Why, I have no idea as no one looked for our details on the way out. All I can suppose is that its a hang over from being a police state.
We did see some culture from our short stay, as we paid a visit to the Museum of Pre Columbian Art. Amazing place and well worth a visit, if difficult to find. We walked by it twice before we realized where it was. If you get a chance, go to visit it, especially to see the mummies where
Santiago
Santiago city from viewpoint on top of Santiago park. stray and organic matter etc were used to fill cavaties.
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