Neighborhood Guide -
Bellavista
&
San Cristóbal
Crisis? What
crisis? Santiago's boho chic quarter flies in the face of criticism.
Bellavista stuns with its colourful streets, its fanciful architecture
and the lushness of a colossal tree-clad hill, the Cerro San Cristóbal,
as a natural backdrop. No wonder it was here that Pablo Neruda, Chile’s
famous Noble-laureate poet, decided to build his home in the capital in
the 1950s. On lazy, sunny days, this barrio feels like a village miles
away from the roaring noise of la Alameda – even if it’s only a short
walk from here. Yet it’s not Bellavista's daytime cuteness
that
pulls the punters. The area’s numerous snazzy bars, restaurants and
cafés heave with crowds every weekend night as the barrio reaches fever
pitch. This hotly desired location has drawn a massive investment in
nightlife infrastructure and these days the Bellavista can, quite
literally, cater for all tastes.
But the area’s accelerated rise in popularity has not been without its critics. The cult status that the barrio enjoyed during the 70s and 80s was certainly ditched long ago, and its increasingly mainstream orientation has made the bohemians and literati that once frequented this area revile the changing times. There is definitely some truth in that you’re more likely to encounter tourist traps here than anywhere else in the capital, but that needn’t imply that you should give this place a miss. Like anyone of a certain age, Bellavista knows how to outsmart the new kids on the block and the gastro ventures that have recently sprung up have more than made up for the loss of its former scruffy seductiveness. Far from suffering from a mid-life crisis, the Bellavista has managed to retain its supremacy as Santiago’s top destination for night entertainment.
Kick off your
tour of the area across the Puente del Arzobispo (Metro Salvador) at
the Montecarmelo,
a former cloister of the Carmelite Order recently
redeveloped into a multi-purpose cultural venue, with a good offer of
theatre performances and art exhibitions. Follow on busy Avenida
Bellavista and take a moment to browse through some of its excellent
bijouterie shops. Here you’ll find the city’s finest retailers of
Lapislazuli,
a semi-precious opaque stone with a distinctive bright
blue colour that is a trademark of Chilean crafts industry. Lapislazuli
can be found in Northern Chile, Southern Peru and Afghanistan, but
artisans here assert vehemently that the local stone is purer and bluer
than the Asian counterpart. The stone is crafted into all sorts of
figurines, with outputs ranging from kitschy décor to more exquisite
creations. Bargains are thin on the ground, but try your luck outside
busy shopping hours (Friday and Saturday afternoons) and you may get a
reduction in price if you ask kindly.
Escape the traffic of Avenida
Bellavista by heading in direction of the San Cristobal through the
peaceful and verdant streets of the Barrio Bellavista proper.
You’ll stumble across firstly with Calle
Dardignac, quite the trendiest
of all the thoroughfares in the area, with dozens of legendary
restaurants and bars standing side by side, among them Azul Profundo,
Kilomètre 11.680 and the Cava de Dardignac, renowned for having
pioneered the ‘tabla’ - a local version of smorgasbord that makes ideal
nibbling while sipping on a good red. There are also some excellent
hangouts along Calle Antonia López de Bello, notably the Off the
Record, a desperately inauthentic but ultimately charming bar cluttered
with kitsch and 1940s memorabilia. Between Calle Constitución
and
Pio Nono is the increasingly popular Patio Bellavista, a enclosed,
modern redevelopment which was unveiled in recent years. It boasts a
couple of bars and restaurants on the inside, as well as a selection of
interesting shops, selling anything from local organic products to the
sort of garments visitors love to take home. There is also a decent
wine merchant, an art gallery for the moneyed and as a bonus point, it
stays open for much of the night.
Back towards the Cerro San
Cristóbal along Calle Constitución and you’ll come across the tranquil
Plazoleta Mori, with its architecturally hybrid red house lurking over
it. Only a few steps away is Bellavista’s prime attraction, La
Chascona, the house that once belonged to the renowned
local poet Pablo
Neruda. As many of the artists of his generation, Neruda was an
eccentric and enthusiastic bohemian. He enjoyed travelling and
collecting items and hosting memorable parties in his residences, which
he ensured to model with a different identity for each. La Chascona is
his only house in Santiago (the other two are in the coast of Central
Chile, one in Valparaiso), and its name “woman with the scruffy hair”
was inspired by the hairdo of Neruda’s first wife, Matilde Urrutia, who
used to dwell at this address. La Chascona is in a privileged location
of Bellavista, it feels as if it almost was not in a city, with the
lush hill as a backyard and the tranquil, provincial streets
surrounding it. But la Chascona was never to be Neruda’s favourite
residence - his heart and soul were by the sea. Still, the remainders
of his unrelenting love for the sea are evident everywhere, from the
round ship-like windows to the boat-shaped mansards. La Chascona is a
not only a museum of one of the world’s best loved poets, it is also an
icon of grand interior design.
Sadly,
many of the poet’s collected objects that used to decorate this house
were lost to looting after 1973. Being a member of the Communist Party,
Neruda’s residences were an indiscriminate target during the first few
days of the coup d’etat of 11 September that year, and la Chascona was
perhaps the worst victim by the insurgents who stormed it. Soon after
democracy made a comeback, the Fundación Neruda, a charity, sought to
refurbish all three of the poet’s houses, and la Chascona was given a
thorough makeover. The museum which opened in the house became an
immediate success, particularly with foreign visitors, including
celebrities and politicians. Soon after, authorities decided to make
improvements to its street area and transformed one end of Calle
Fernando Márquez de La Plata into a small amphitheatre where small
crowds gather on weekends to read poetry or watch street artists. The
new life with which the house has been injected has probably restored
much of the sentimental value that the poet once attached to his
personalised homes.
Calle Pio Nono
is a divisory line
between the modern, upscale Bellavista and a more raggedy, working
class area to the west. Calle Pio Nono was an iconic setting in the
Santiago of the 1980s, when crowds used to flock to an improvised flea
market on its sidewalks. The street, however, earned some reputation
for petty crime and drug dealing, although things have improved
considerably over recent years and it’s even scheduled for a revamp in
the near future. For the time being, Pio Nono still offers a less
urbane but cheaper range of restaurants and bars. On weekends, the
Plaza Caupolicán
at the north end of the road doubles as a playground
for families with children, being the gateway to San Cristobal’s Parque
Metropolitano, the sizeable green getaway of the city. San
Cristobal’s
park was the result of the idea by Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna, back in
the 1870s, to transform this once bare hill into a green space for the
city through the planting a variety of tree species, among them
eucalyptus and pine trees. The development finally began in 1918, under
the direction of Alberto Mackenna, and contemplated the building of
terraces, pedestrian pathways as well as roads for car use, making the
park perfectly equipped for motorists and strollers alike. There is a
funicular which leaves from Plaza Caupolicán that takes you up to
Terraza Bellavista, with a midway stop for the Park’s somewhat
lacklustre Zoo (Parque Zoológico de Santiago). An alternative entrance
to the San Cristóbal is through the north end of Pedro de Valdivia
(Metro Station Pedro de Valdivia) although both ways meet at the
various terraces and vistas of the hill. Among the park’s facilities
are restaurants, children playgrounds and two large public swimming
pools. An easy, yet vertigo-inducing way of reaching the top is by
using one of the egg-shaped cable cars or teleféricos. The
adrenalin-stimulating ride (note however, that the teleféricos’ safety
record is unspoilt), which starts at the entrance by Pedro de Valdivia,
commands unsurpassed views over the valley taking you to the summit of
the San Cristóbal, topped with the large statue of the Virgin Mary
overlooking the sprawling urban area.
