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by Manos Angelakis
Santiago de Chile
It has been more that 17 years since my last visit to Santiago and I was curious to see how the capital of Chile had fared. It turned out to be a very interesting visit.
Two decades of uninterrupted economic growth have transformed Santiago into one of Latin America's most sophisticated metropolitan areas. Santiago is affluent. The city has grown and expanded towards the foothills of the Andes. Looking from the top of San Cristobal Hill towards Las Condes and Vitacura, areas that used to be farmland or vineyards with a few modest villas, we see that they are now Santiago’s new business district with modern glass-and-concrete high-rises having replaced the single or two story private homes. "Costanera Norte," a freeway system passes below downtown Santiago’s center connecting the East and West extremes of the city, and the Mapocho River, that still flows through the center, has been confined by man-made concrete banks.
The old business center is now a huge pedestrian shopping mall with, unfortunately, mostly poor quality merchandise, and government offices have taken over most of the buildings in the area. Even the  Hotel Carrera, the doyen of Santiago hotels located across from the Moneda Presidential Palace, has been turned into offices for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Moneda is now used mostly for ceremonial purposes, and under the plaza in front of it is Santiago’s Handicraft Museum and a well stocked handicrafts shop.
How did such affluence develop in Chile? One word: Exports. Chile’s economy is now export oriented and thriving. There are more refrigerated cargo flights leaving Santiago’s airport with fresh fruit, vegetables, farmed fish and shellfish than passenger flights. Chile has surpassed Norway as the no. 1 exporter of fresh farmed salmon. Chilean wines, both high quality as well as entry level bottles are being constantly shipped to the rest of the world. And copper, whose price had been very low in the past, is now up, quadrupled in fact, due to the insatiable demand from industrializing China.
Chileans, and especially Santiago’s residents, always worked hard and played hard  and that is still the case. We visited the “Mercado Central” the central market. It is full of fresh fruit and vegetables and the fish section still has the little stalls where hangover-suffering Chileños congregate at 4 o’clock in the morning for the traditional hangover remedy, a deep plate full of raw clams, mussels and sea urchin eggs bathed in a lemon/lime juice mixture with finely chopped onion and cilantro.
 The demise of the venerable Hotel Carrera, and the plethora of business travelers coming to Santiago, has spurred luxury hotel development throughout the city. The luxurious Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Las Condes is a beautifully appointed 5 star property and so is the Grand Hyatt Santiago, in the new Kennedy district. There is also the Hotel Plaza San Francisco and the Crowne Plaza in downtown and the Park Plaza in Providencia, amongst others. A large number of superior 4 star properties have also augmented the existing number of business hotels, including the Neruda group of hotels in Providencia and Las Condes, Las Gallerias in the business center, and the International Holiday Inn Express to name but a few.
 The city’s affluence has also spurred the redevelopment of some of the bohemian neighborhoods near the center. Yungay, Brazil and Bellavista are now sites of lovely upscale restaurants, discos and quirky cafés and bars (see Restaurant Notes). Particularly charming was Boulevard Lavaud Salón de Té, an early 20th century hair salon and barbershop that is now a restaurant and antique store but still offers hair styling and barber services. We stopped there for a cup of café-café and pastries and marveled at the collection of “curiosities” being offered for sale. The bar and wine bar were well stocked and a few men were nursing drinks in the bar room... young housewives out on a shopping spree had stopped for a cup of tea... a couple held hands and whispered to each other in one of the empty rooms... the barber in the “hair salon” area, was shaving a reclining young man swathed in shaving foam... it could have easily been a scene from a “New Wave” movie, but was not surprising in a city that has managed to integrate the old with the new and make it all work together.
© December 2006 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.
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