Santiago: Mirrored High Rises and Fabulous Street Art

It was a short, last minute business trip to Santiago in February 2014, with only a few hours to wander the city and look for photographs. Since the trip was predominately work related, I stayed at hotel near the office in upscale Las Condes, where high-rises are sprouting like weeds.

 Santiago is an interesting combination of 1900’s Spanish mission inspired buildings, mid-century concrete low-rises reminiscent of soviet construction, and gleaming modern mirrored high-rises. It’s funny to see the squat four-story 1950s buildings sitting right next to the 40-story high rise. You can almost see property developers salivating to get their hand on the property, tear it down and start anew.

 If you like geometric pattern photographs, spend time in Las Condes photographing the buildings. Most have highly reflective, mirrored windows and the buildings reflect each other creating fantastic patterns. I’m guessing the extensive use of mirrored glass is to help mitigate the heat load, given the incredible amount of sun they get, but it may purely be an aesthetic choice. Regardless, I’ve never seen anything like it in any other city. The few shown here were taken around 10 AM when a few shadows still lingered to emphasize the patterns. I choose to avoid the obvious and took horizontal shots of vertical buildings.

 Sadly the Plaza de Armas was under construction when I was there, but certainly the crowds would make for excellent street photography if that’s your specialty. I was hungry, foot sore and tired by the time I made it there and in no mood to take photos, but the people watching was fun. I was told to keep a close eye on personal items in dense crowds in Santiago, even though the majority of the city feels completely safe, even for a woman traveling alone.

1950s Soviet Era construction

1950s Soviet Era construction

Barrio Bellavista has incredible street art, some of the best I’ve ever seen. I don’t pretend to be any good at street photography, but in retrospect I wish I had spent more time trying to use the fantastic murals as backdrops. When you need a break, stop in at Plaza Bellavista, an outdoor complex of restaurants and shops. Although it was predominately built for the tourists, it is very well done. The architects used changing levels very effectively to create a variety of smaller spaces that flow into each other. It was high-noon when I was at the Plaza so I didn’t choose to take any photos, but I think all of the different levels and flow of people could make for interesting photographs, particularly late in the day when Chilenos come out to play.

Street art in Barrio Bellavista

Street art in Barrio Bellavista

I did take a quick drive up towards the local ski areas just to see the Andes, since I never have before. It was pretty clear that I never made it out of the foothills of the real Andes, but nonetheless in February I had clear line of sight to snow on the mountain tops. Santiago does have some problems with smog and haze. The only afternoon I had for the short drive was hazy, so all my photos were pretty boring. If I hadn’t been so short on time I would have stopped the car and walked to get some close-up photos. Keep your eyes peeled for a variety of elaborate road-side shrines, some make for good photography.

 

As always, a few non-photographic tips:

 1) Dinning: TripAdvisor will tell you to eat on Isidora Goyenechea. Don’t. I did one night and paid an outrageous amount for very mediocre seafood at Playa Mariscos. Fortunately, my local Chilean colleagues were able to point me to good restaurants the following night – in nearby Viticura. In contrast, La Mar on Avenida Neuva Costanera, was 1000 times better and half the cost. Some of the best ceviche I’ve had, except for Mexico when the fish was caught an hour ago. Neuva Costanera is full of mid-high end restaurants, parsed between Mercedes Benz dealerships, and all of them are aggressively competing for local customers, without a single tourist in site. Don’t worry, the waiters are very helpful even if you don’t speak Spanish.

 2) Transportation: Don’t bother with a car rental, unless you want to go into the mountains. The city is fairly compact, and taxis are both plentiful and cheap. Make sure you don’t mess up the system...no one tips taxi drivers in Santiago. There’s also a metro that runs near the river, although I didn’t use it. Consider renting a bike if you’re there on a Sunday. Santiago converts the main streets along the river to bike-only from 10 AM to 2 PM on Sunday. A lot of locals take advantage of it!

 

Enjoy!