A Walk Down Avenida Providencia

I just completed my last final for the quarter, and it's hard to believe how quickly the time has gone by. As of today, I've officially been living in Providencia with my home-stay for 10 full weeks. That said, I realized this blog was missing a significant entry: my daily walk from home to the Stanford center. And so, the other day I brought my camera along with me and tried to capture some of the more iconic sights.

Avenida Providencia is one of the main streets in my sector of Santiago. To get to class, I could have taken a number of other routes and side-streets and enjoyed doing so once in a while to change things up. However, I realized I also found comfort in passing by the same sights and sounds day-in, day-out, so most days I ended up going straight along Providencia.

Even though I'm sad to be moving out of Providencia later this week, I am definitely grateful that I still have plenty of time left in Chile. Over the next month or so, I'll be doing a lot of traveling and then I'll finally settle down in the south, to focus on my Mapuche textile internship with Voz.

Home

The Micro

If I'm running late for class or just plain tired, I always have the option of taking the micro bus or metro (subway). Both conveniently pass close by my home-stay.

The Skyline

Recipe for Success???

Considering the fact that I walk by this restaurant daily, I couldn't help but include the sign in this blog entry...still haven't dared to eat there.

Nuts 4 Nuts

Given that Chileans love their maní, or peanuts, Nuts 4 Nuts does quite well. It's a popular chain that has stands throughout the city, and the smell of their freshly honey-roasted peanuts and almonds is irresistible. Luckily, I get to pass by 3 carts on route to Stanford.

Check out their video and website at: http://www.nuts4nuts.cl/historia-luis-martinez.html

Los Leones

Named after these statues, the metro stops close-by.

Avenida Providencia

Street Vendors

Classic of most large cities, they sell magazines, newspapers, snacks, and sweets. I must pass by over two dozen of these each way.

Condorito

One of the popular magazines sold by street vendors. When asked to describe Chileans in a nutshell, people point to Condorito, an iconic cartoon character. My host Mom has a couple Condorito magazines floating around the house, and when flipping through them, I found the humor quite distinct. Although Condorito comes in a variety of editions, I found the punch-lines a bit too cheesy and crude.

Flower Stands

Cafés

Sidewalks are lined with small, independently operated cafés. For lunch, one of my favorite things to do is to stop by a slightly secluded café like the one pictured above and order el menu del día. For just $4-7 USD you usually get bread, a salad, a main dish, and a drink/dessert. The main dishes tend to be Chilean specialties, like porotos granados, pastel de choclo, bistec/lomo/pollo con arroz, o cazuela.

Menu del Día

Bicycles

I pass by a couple racks of government-owned bikes as well. Don't know too many of the details, but I've heard that you can register via a public program to use them for free! (although I'm not a big fan of bikers in the city- bike lanes are rare so cyclists tend to weave among pedestrians on the sidewalks)

Tobalaba

My journey ends just a couple blocks from this metro stop at the Stanford center.