Barrio El Golf: A Different View of Santiago

Monday March 17 was a carbon copy of the day before, with blue, blue skies.  As there are very few cultural places open on Monday, we decided to take the subway out to the El Golf neighbourhood to see a wealthier part of Santiago.  There is a street further out with all the ritzy international clothing stores that we decided to skip as it required both a subway and a bus ride, and we don't really shop at those international stores anyway.  However, we wanted to check out El Mundo del Vino, a high-end wine shop that Courtney Kingston, from the winery Kingston Family Vineyards, wrote us should have a bottle of the pinot noir we had liked at her winery.  This branch of El Mundo de Vino, with over 6000 bottles of wine, is located in the W Hotel, which opened in 2009.  We go out of the subway at the El Golf station and headed to the street with the wine store.

Exiting at the El Golf station- interesting mural

Sculpture outside El Golf Metro stop

We walked through the plaza in the centre of the Centro Civico Teatro Municipal de Las Condos and came upon a street with a number of sculptures on it.

                                                                       Municipal theatre 

The other side of the Teatro

There were a number of great sculptures in the area near the Teatro.

Sculpture outside Teatro


Another sculpture

                                                                               Further along the street

More....

We also saw a number of incredible modern buildings-- many were part of the new financial area known as "Sanhattan" (Santiago + Manhattan).  Very wide streets and green spaces in the 'hood.  We felt we could have been  in any modern city in the US or Canada.

The streetscape

Another beauty

                                                      In the distance, still under construction 

We got to the W building, which housed a number of shops, including El Mundo del Vino.  Unfortunately, our guide book had mentioned a roof top bar, which is no more.

Building with Mercedes Benz dealership and W Hotel

El Mundo del Vino was awesome.  A huge store with wine beautifully displayed.  Most of the wines were Chilean, but there were some bottles from around the world.  We had a helpful assistant who found us a bottle of Tobiano, which we bought.  We also bought another recommended bottle from a small lot winery, that does not export.

                                                          Just one part of El Mundo del Vino

We then went for lunch at Domino, just down the street.  Domino, a modern day take on a Fuente de Soda (soda fountain), had hot dogs and beef with various toppings.  It was full of office workers having lunch.  We had a beef sandwich with avocado, tomatoes, and mayo.  I had another raspberry drink, which is very popular in Santiago, and Alano had a pineapple drink.

                                                                                   Alano with lunch

                                                               Somewhere in there is the beef

                                                                                 The Raspberry drink

We continued our walk in "Sanhattan".  More incredible skyscrapers and sculptures.

                                                                    I'll take "Sanhattan"

The next two pictures are of incredibly innovative and modern buildings.  The second one has trees growing on one side of the building.

We made our way back to another subway stop and returned to central Santiago.  We stopped to check out Kind of Blue, apparently the best music store in the city.  Unfortunately, CDs are very expensive in Chile.  Very nice store.  We had a late afternoon coffee at Cafe Mosqueto on Mosqueto St, not too far from our apartment.

                                                                                       Kind of Blue

                                                                            Cafe Mosqueto

We bought some empanadas to go with green beans and a big salad for dinner at the apartment.  We passed a copy of the satirical magazine The Clinic with a picture of former President Sebastian Pinere (2010-2014), who has said he will run again in another four years.

                                                                       "I'll be back"

Today was very interesting as we saw a totally different city from some of the other barrios (neighbourhoods) we have explored.  Barrio El Golf and the surrounding Barrios of Las Condes and Vitacura are very wealthy and very modern.  A definite contrast to the old elegance of Santiago Centro and the working class and more bohemian neighbours nearby.