More Random Facts about Santiago

1. Mullets are shockingly popular, as is long hair on guys.

2. Heavy metal is HUGE. My first week here I saw tons of Iron Maiden shirts – turns out they had played the week before. I guess it helps to have long hair for head-banging.

3. Stray dogs are a huge issue. Except that no Chilean seems to think so. They’re kind of just around and chilling and doing their thing, ie, sleeping in the middle of the road, or peeing on the sidewalk or snoozing in the sun in the park. People feed them and they actually seem pretty content. None of them look that skinny, either. In fact, it’s the dogs WITH leashes and collars that seem kind of annoyed that they can’t just do whatever they want.
a. Julia and I ate at a restaurant outside of which hangs this middle-sized, kind of yellow, wiry dog. We were eating dinner on the patio in front when a man came up begging, and the dog went ballistic, as if to say “Don’t bother my customers, you’re on MY territory.” The man ended up kicking the dog (very sad) but he did go away, and the dog remained.
b. I was doing sit-ups in the park during a run, and after about number 89 or so, this dog came up to me to say hello. Gave me a little lick to say “how you doing? Just checking on you.” Very cute dog, actually, and then he gave me a couple more licks and I left. He seemed very content to stay at
the park.

4. There are stores specifically dedicated to one thing. Granted, we have department stores here as well, but my two favorite one-item stores are the optician and lamp stores. There must be an eyesight problem in Chile because in the Centro, there is literally at least one optician in EVERY SINGLE BLOCK. No joke. Also, there is one entire block that has only stores that sell lamps, lightbulbs, and lamp-related items. To compound the face that there are 8 (I counted) lamp stores RIGHT next to each other, they also seem to stock pretty much the exact same items. Confusing.

5. There is a national drink, called the Pisco Sour. Peru and Chile are forever fighting about which country actually created Pisco first, but regardless, it’s the national drink. Pisco is a clear liquor, somewhere in the white rum department, I believe, and is combined with sour mix and ends up being very frothy and a bit deadly as well. Turns out in Chile, when a liquor says, for example, 40 Proof, it’s actually 40%, and is therefore 80 Proof. Caution.

6. Wine is tasty and cheap, kind of like Italy, but, dare I say?, even better and even cheaper. I haven’t purchased any wine for more than 2,000 pesos, roughly $4.50, and every bottle has been great. Imagine what kind of wine you’d get if I spent the equivalent of how much I’d spend at home. Divine!

7. Cheese here is bad, at least at the grocery stores I’ve been to. I’m sure there’s a gourmet shop I haven’t discovered yet. However, if you buy Gruyere in the store, it doesn’t taste like the Gruyere in the States. It tastes kind of like bland Swiss. And they’re really into their semi-soft cheese here – Gouda, etc. So far I haven’t found a single Cheddar. They do have Brie and Camembert which tastes normal.

8. Everything imported is kind of expensive and everything that isn’t is not. For example, I’ll be buying a refrigerator soon, and the Chilean brand, Mademsa (sound like Medusa, anyone?) is by far the cheapest and also hasn’t been sent halfway across the world, thus also making it the most environmentally friendly!!!

9. They don’t recycle, except for glass, and they pick up trash EVERY SINGLE NIGHT in the center.

10. There are tons of Hamberías, kind of bizarre, fast-foodish places that sell Hamburgers, Hot Dogs and Fries but also Empanadas and other usual Chilean fare.

11. Cafes con Piernas are not quite as rampant as they used to be, but there’s still a good number of them in the center of town. “Café with legs” is the translation, and basically, it’s men only, and the topless women inside serve them coffee. These cafes have tinted windows, and it’s all a bit delightfully scandalous.