Barrio Bellas Artes

In this post we thought we'd show some pictures of our new 'hood - Barrio Bellas Artes. This is an area of Santiago Centro, on the cusp of downtown Santiago, centred around the small urban park that we mentioned previously - Cerro Santa Lucia. The adjoining barrio is Barrio Lastarria, on the other side of the Cerro. These are mentioned together in Lonely Planet as:

Home to three of the city's best museums, these dinky neighbourhoods near Cerro Santa Lucia are Santiago's twin hubs of hip... the real centre of Santiago cafe culture is over at Barrio Bellas Artes.

Bellas Artes takes its name from el Museo Bellas Artes - the Museum of Fine Arts:

Museo Bellas Artes

In case you're still unsure

Facing away from the museum - a hazy view of Cerro San Cristobal, can't quite make out the huge white Madonna

Academia Bellas Artes

The Museum is about two blocks from our apartment, we haven't been inside yet, but we have wandered up and down parts of the slim park that runs through a large chunk of the city along the Rio Mapocho, the Parque Forestal:

It's not a forest but it does have trees

This isn't even remotely comparable to Central Park NYC but it is basically a place for Santaguinos to walk dogs, go running etc so it's great to have it nearby. We've tried to give an idea of how it looks in the photos below - like Chile, its long and thin:

One way...

...and the other

 So back into the street grid, the best place to start is the Metro station. The sign with three red diamond shapes means there's a metro stop nearby - Santiago has a great metro/ tube system which we both use to get back from our campuses. It's clean and fast, but a little overcrowded at rush hours - still that's two out of three better than London...

Mural!

Close to the Metro station is the ExpressGalaxy Market where we've been getting snacks on the way back from school in the evenings. It seems to be a family run operation, and we haven't yet seen it closed. They sell amazing fresh empanadas and pizza - their empanadas are usually ham and cheese with tomato, which we hadn't seen before. We went in during the day once this week and the old boy who is usually serving at night was asleep in an armchair next to the storeroom at the back - but we didn't have our camera!

Not very express, and certainly nothing to do with the galaxy, market

This "express galaxy" thing appears in slightly different ways in the names of mini-markets all over el Centro, it must be code for something but we don't know what. Here's a cool photo taken from calle Mac-Iver, showing some new Santiago mixed with some old: 

Beautiful old lamp-post, concrete crud, tree, and shiny skyscraper - Santiago in one

This building is a few doors from our apartment building, it's not as old as it looks (about 1800) but, along with the one below of the police station, it's fairly indicative of the older architecture in Bellas Artes before you hit downtown:

Carabineros de Chile - the police station almost opposite our building

Our street is called Santo Domingo, the city is laid out largely on a grid system, and some streets run along much of the length of the city from west to east - but change in character hugely along the way. Navigating is basically like New York City - what you're trying to find is defined by a block named after its intersecting streets:

Santo Domingo y Mac-Iver

On to another street just across from the metro station - Mosqueto:

This is a great little street which has mainly trees and coffee shops - we've been a couple of times to a coffee shop down here that we mentioned before :

calle Mosequeto

Cafe Flores Mosqueto - good coffee great cake!

While we're on coffee shops near Bellas Artes metro - the outside of Cafe Bellas Artes Soho

There's also a really good cafe a block further up on our road called La Pausa - pause. No pics unfortunately but we have to mention it as we ate there a few days ago and tried to pay by credit card but the machine was broken. The people who run all the coffee shops are so chilled out - the guy in this one just said it would be fine if we came back later and paid him once we had the cash, hero. 

The neighbouring barrio is Barrio Lastarria, on the other side of Cerro Santa Lucia:

Steps to Cerro Santa Lucia

Lastarria is beautiful, with lots of restaurants and cafes, and an arts cinema, so here's some pics, all within just over 5 mins walk from our apartment:

can't resist... if Cousin It was a building

So there's a quick tour of our 'hood, and the neighbouring 'hood. We'll finish with some pics of our lunch this week at La Vega, which is going to be a regular for us as it's amazing food for very little money, as you'd hope for in a food market that hasn't been touristified: 

The Aunty Ruth - all sorts of good stuff to eat

You can even shop while you eat, we bought two kitchen sponges from an old buffer wandering between the tables with a bag of them. A load of fruit and veg cost us about £3!

Anna shortly before a paila marina

Some other diners

chao!