Tag Archive for ‘Chile’
Santiago: Palacio Cousiño – grand living for a grand family
As with so much of society in South America, fashions in European culture and art set the tone in the 19th century. This very strong influence and orientation is seen just as much in Santiago as in other capitals of the continents on the Southern Hemisphere. The Palacio Cousiño is no exception. It was built [...]
Santiago: Museum of Pre-Columbian art
The Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino is touted as one of the finest museums for Pre-Columbian art in the world. The heart of the collection comes from over 50 years of a passion for collecting beautiful artefacts of all pre-Columbian cultures by Sergio Larraín García-Moreno, a Chilean avant-gardist architect. The museum, a collaboration of his [...]
Santiago: Museo de la Moda
Applause for private initiative! This museum grew out of a son’s admiration for his mother’s sense of style and fashion. It probably also helped that the family’s business had to do with the textile industry. At any rate, the Museo de la Moda, established in 2006 by Jorge Yarur Bascuñan, is located in the former [...]
Pet peeve – literally
What is it about people who get pets, mostly dogs or cats, and then dispose of them like so much garbage? And then these poor animals have to fend for themselves, scavenging for food in garbage cans, procreating, getting sick, maybe even spreading disease. Not to mention having to stake out and defend their territory. [...]
Easter Island: Paradise in peril
The mystery of its culture, its remote location in the middle of the Pacific, the Thor Heyerdahl book I had read as a youngster, all these factors and more had contributed to my really looking forward to visiting the Easter Island – the navel of the world, as the Rapa Nuis call it. A very [...]
Santiago: Museo Ralli Latin American art
Hidden away in the exclusive Viracura neighborhood, on a quiet side street corner, is a sprawling red building with simple lines and wide stairs leading up to glass doors. Entering the light-filled lobby, I find I am the only visitor this winter morning. Friendly staff take my coat and invite me to take as many [...]
Santiago: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes
The museum of fine arts – Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes – is housed in a magnificent palace dating back to 1910, reminiscent of the Petit Palais in Paris: ornate wrought-iron gates open onto a central hall, caryatid columns hold the filigree-boned ironwork central glass cuppola (imported from Belgium in 1907). Shiny black granite tiles [...]
Valdivia: town of rivers, beer and chocolates
What a beautiful place this city must be during the summer months! Surrounded by three rivers and countless inlets, coves and baylets, it reminded me of the Puget Sound region around Seattle, only on a slightly smaller scale. Now, during the winter, we were lucky to get a couple of hours of sunshine (more…) But [...]
Hot springs, Chilean style
My friends know that I am a hot springs addict, so it is normal for me to drive almost 200 km in order to visit the best of the region. And this, I was told, is Huife, close to the Villarica lake and volcano. So off I set with my swimsuit, flip flops and towels [...]
Fresia – no, not the flower
Don’t even think of looking it up on a map. Suffice it to say that it is a God-forsaken town of approx. 12.000 inhabitants about 1000 km south of Santiago. There is a legend that it was named after the wife of a Mapuche chieftain who was taken prisoner by the Spaniards in the 16th [...]
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