- The streets downtown can be quite small/narrow, often made of brick or cobblestone.
- If you’re driving, you must pay to use the highway system; cost varies by the time of day and number of kilometers you drive (at off peak hours it was something like 110 pesos/km, ~$0.16 USD).
- You must throw your toilet paper away in a trash can rather than flush it down the toilet (good thing we’re used to this from Costa Rica).
You’ll likely feel small drips while walking the streets of downtown, courtesy of the many air conditioner units in the windows of high rises (and even not-so-high rises).- Dinner can be onces, a tea time-type meal.
- Funky phrases from graffiti on the streets of Chile:
- Art always begins with a smile
- +Poesia -Policia
- To think is to create
- Turn off the TV and turn on your clitoris
- There are tons of people who sell homemade food on the streets: sandwiches (lots of vegetarian, vegan options here too, like seitan), fajitas, cookies, truffles, whole grain bread, even sushi!
- People are really political! In a good way, I think. I can’t count the number of protests or demonstrations we’ve seen in the month we spent here.
- There are dogs. Everywhere.
- All banks close at 2pm. I repeat, ALL banks close at 2pm (though most ATMs are 24-hour).
- Chile uses military time.
- Most museums, and many restaurants, are closed on Mondays. Many, like the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes are free!
- Chileans value their public spaces and enjoy the many green park areas. People take care to sweep sidewalks, and many workers are charged with public maintenance. We’ve seen people scraping gunk off sidewalks, stairwells, subways, and more. We’ve even seen someone graffiti a wall during a protest and it was gone and painted over the very next day.
- Glass has it’s own recycling/disposal on the sidewalks. They’re large cylindrical containers and are there to protect the garbage collectors (and general public) from injury on broken shards.
- At stoplights you might see performers. We’ve seen regular jugglers (with bowling pins, balls, you name it), a juggling duo that did super fast juggling while trading places, a couple in full regalia doing traditional Chilean folkloric dancing, a “cheerleading” duo, a woman flag dancing, a contact juggler, hoola-hooper, and more.
- Live music is a part of nightlife and daylife. We’ve seen several one-man-bands, brass ensembles (including tuba), string quartets (with cello and bass), flamenco style guitarists, keyboard-ists, and even a full band with a complete drum kit and amp on busy street corners at any and all times of day.
- Chilean words I was unaware of until now:
- Palta = Aguacate = Avocado
- Ají = Chile
- Cachái = did you understand?
- Poroto = Frijol = Bean
- Frutilla = Fresa = Strawberry
- Terremoto = alcoholic drink (According to wiki, a jar is called a Cataclismo and a small cup is called a Réplica. See below.)
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We noticed they like to serve drinks with two straws here, often decoratively bent in opposing directions.In Chile, a terremoto might refer to an ultra-sweet drink made with a white wine, pineapple ice cream, and grenadine. I quite looked forward to it until I felt cavities forming in my mouth on the first sip. Neither the seismic event nor the drink are recommended.
Thank you, for decoding a some of the local vernacular and customs of Santiago! Wish some of our citizens here would value public spaces as highly as Chileans.
I agree with red. I will also recommend a visit to the dentist for cleaning Terremoto and avoid cavities.
Enjoy Argentina and can’t wair to read about it.
Flag dancing?? As in, color guard???
Lol maybe? But with small flags, like one in each hand. Is that still colorguard?