Santiago Central, Lastarria, Vicuna Mackenna, Plaza Italia and Life on the Streets

Hi again folks, this past week, I wandered on my bike through the barrio of Lastarria which is a famous artist neighborhood right next to the Santa Lucia in Central Santiago. I was inspired by a documentary about a British photojournalist that captured many great images of people. So, my emphasis on portraits. I also took some video of the downtown area on another shaky bike ride amongst the traffic and a trip up calle Vicuna Mackenna with lots of cool buildings and sites finishing at Plaza Italia a tourist spot and local meeting spot for partying nights, protests and celebrations.
Enjoy!

A cool couple that were working on a university project about why people like this neighborhood. Of course, that opened the way for me to ask for their image. 

 This man and his wife were vending the items below and enjoying a typical Chilean lunch of tomato, avocado, onions and bread.

This was the Artist Mario and he loved to hang out, eat ice cream and chat up passer buyers.

All streets in Santiago seem to have a fruit vendor who are usually very nice and humble people like this fellow here who was very happy and proud to have his picture taken with his fruit stand.

These construction workers were working inside the old building turning it into

a new restaurant and were happy to take a picture while on break outside the building.

My bike ride down Calle San Antinio

The graffiti is of Don Francisco who is a famous Chilean actor/journalist that has made his fame around the Latin world and especially in the United States with a varsity show.

 This is the old American embassy where during the Pinochet era they would occasionally receive a grenade or two over the wall for helping Pinochet over through the lawfully elected president Allende.

calle Vicuna Mackenna

calle Vicuna Mackenna with Plaza Italia

 These images were taken in the Plaza Italia where most political protests start or finish and where any major sporting event is celebrated upon victory. It is also a general meeting spot for locals and tourist to head out in all direction of the city on a weekend night. 

These two young folks were happy to have their picture taken.... well he was as he came over to me

to introduce himself as a fellow photographer. 

 Local police officer (carabinerio) helps woman with directions. They do not call the police cops here but pacos.

Santiago has made good stride in improving the bicycle infrastructure for the city and have made bike lanes here all over the place. Many Santiago residence use these lanes including me.

They have also installed these bike rental locations throughout the city and people seem to love them.

There seems to be a general respect for cyclist here in Santiago and people do not get angry when people ride on sidewalks as they know how dangerous the streets are. 

I spotted this cool church towards the end of my ride. I looked on a map and all over the church it's self but could not find the name of it. At any rate, it is on Vicuna Mackenna calle.

 Gargoyles are still 'in' on this building.

Graffiti Laden Streets and Bike Repair Shops barrio San Diego in Santiago de Chile.

Hello Folks, 

I took the time to final get my camera out of the house on my bicycle and explored the barrio San Diego where they have three blocks of bike sales and repair shops. Needless to say, I am finding everything I need for my bikes in that neighborhood and have whittled the list of 'cool' family owned shops down to two that I will go to from now on for my bike needs. I also visited the large imposing Catholic church called Basilica de los Sacramentinos in the same barrio. Here is a link to the old building.  

https://translate.google.cl/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://sacramentinos.barriodieciochopatrimonial.cl/&prev=search

On the same day, I shot video of my travels via bici(bike) and some of the nice pleasant areas in the downtown area including the new bike lanes the city government has installed. I also had quite a surprise for me this day. I was photographing an old fellow selling fruit and vegetables in front of some graffiti and took his picture. While I was framing the image, I could here the song 'Slow Ride' by Foghat playing off in the distance and coming closer and closer. Soon, this sort of grubby looking guy in a black trench jacket comes by and is pulling a large boombox on wheels like a suitcase and blasting that song. As he passed me, I smiled and said, "It's you" and he repeated back the same to me in bad English.  As he walked away, I thought it would make a good video shot and started to coast towards him on my bike attempting to non chalantly capture him and he began shouting, "sacalo" at me over and over. This means take the picture in Spanish. So I thought nothing of it,  as I got closer and closer to him now standing on a corner surrounded by dozens of people. Then, he opened up his jacket and reveled a 38 cal. hand gun. Then he brought it out and waved it around and kept saying "Sacalo, sacalo". I guess he was daring me to take a picture. I did not push the button to snap a picture but another one that would start the video capture. Alas, I was out of memory and the day's. highlight was lost. He was probably some crazy homeless guy that uses the weapon for protection as he draws people towards his craziness blaring the boom box. 

Enjoy the bike tour below and the pictures of Santiago.

Richard

This building is just down the street from where I am living and thought the color was cool enough to photograph.

Notice the bike lane to the left of the road. This is typical with most bike lanes even have bigger blocks of concrete dividing the street for the bikes and cars.

On the same street near my apartment.

This is some a cool wall with graffiti running for like 50 yards and I also captured it with the video capture and you will notice this on the video above.

la Basilica de Sacramentino 

Chilean's love their little shops of books which are to be found all over the city.

la Basilica de Sacramentino 

la Basilica de Sacramentino 

Typical apartment building in Santiago.

New apartments are going up all over the place.

calle San Diego

calle Santiago

The giant flag off in the distance stands in front of La Moneda Palace which is the

Presidential palace where President Bachelet works.

This is where the gun totting gun came by. 

Some cool graffiti near my apartment.