Barrio Brasil

Barrio Brasil is a neighbourhood close to where I am staying, and I spent a pleasant half day wandering its interesting streets and some local attractions. Blessed with glorious weather at present makes such things easy. The beautiful blue sky match Perth’s blue sky in fact.

On the way up from the train station, I encountered street decorations of various kinds, making it a colourful walk. The two below reminded me to check out theatre opportunities here while I’m in a big city and also that political statements of various kinds are well represented on street walls.

Speaking of politics, I encountered an interesting exhibition near the posters. It used released official documents (mostly CIA reports, it seemed) as data sources to inform people about the political events in Latin America over the past fifty years or so. A fascinating project, and no doubt disturbing in many ways to see what events had transpired and who was responsible for them, that I was pleased to see attended by a school group while I was there.

I wandered to the Natural History Museum in a large park (Quinta Normal park), where there was an exhibition of junior science projects on display. I had a quick look around the impressive museum, and enjoyed seeing some excellent displays of local significance, such as the condor birds, the people of the high Andean country (with their llama) and of course the continent’s wonderful gift to the world: potatoes.

The park is large and was delightful to wander in the spring sunshine. Lots of trees, as well as a lake, chairs and picnic spaces, small museums etc. There were some school excursions happening of course, which seemed a bit like school excursions everywhere: bunches of kids enjoying a day out of the classroom with their friends, and with a busy teacher trying to make it all work.

The chap wandering around was selling sweets (I think) as well as icy poles (in the box he is carrying). I am no longer surprised to see murals and other forms of urban art. It is a beautiful park, and was immaculately kept.

My main destination was the large Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Museum of memory and human rights), a rather grim looking building, befitting its contents:

Inside, over several levels in this new museum, were the details of the events in Chile, starting with military coup in 1973 in which General Pinochet ousted Salvador Allende, and their many consequences. I was not able to photograph inside, and would have been uneasy posting photos here anyway, as there are many gruesome events that took place, with lots of abusive actives such as torture and about 40 000 people executed or just missing. A very troubled time, but it’s good to see a record of such things, and several school groups attending the museum, so that they are not forgotten – or repeated, hopefully. I struggled a bit inside as almost everything was in Spanish, but I have found that I can read a fair bit – slowly – even if I have more trouble speaking and listening.

I’m always a bit puzzled by photo refusals, and in fact was interviewed by a US doctoral student after my visit to talk about it all, so I told her that it is strange that no personal records are allowed. In some cases, I know that’s to help a museum sell their own photos etc, but in this case, there were no English publications available. The interview reminded me of the small world we inhabit: a Korean doctoral student (in the USA) interviewing an itinerant Australian about his experiences in a Chilean museum …

Wandering the streets of Barrio Brasil after my museum and park experiences was a fascinating activity, mostly because of the extraordinary urban street art. My Lonely Planet guide had advised me to take my camera (unnecessary in my case, of course) and I could see why. Many amazing examples of urban architecture, murals, streetscapes etc in this barrio, which is beginning to move from faded glory to chic, it seemed to me. Below are a few of the very many interesting examples that caught my eye. the red building is the First Methodist Church in Santiago, it seems (and may well still be the only one … thus is a very Catholic country)

This is a slightly dodgy place to be walking around at night (so I probably won’t until I’m a bit surer of things, if at all), but it was a lovely place to stroll around in the day time, and felt perfectly safe. On the edge of the barrio, some of the buildings had previously been magnificent, and were now wonderful to look at as well, even if their original purposes had changed. I was very surprised to see the car parts building, for example:

I also passed through  lovely little park in the middle of Barrio Brasil, in which there were lots of people relaxing, exercising, playing, picnicking or just hanging out. I was surprised to see the playground equipment – very funky – as well as the people practicing various kinds of moves and skills.

I stopped for lunch (which was delightful) in a French restaurant that had previously been a barber shop. In fact it still is a barber shop in places, as I found when I entered the wrong door! Full of antique furniture, pictures, etc, it also served great food as well as ambience.

Wandering around the barrio, I got occasional glimpses of the nearby Andes mountains, which generally excited me. Coming from Perth, I am not accustomed to either mountains or snow, so seeing them both together at the end of the street is still of great interest. I tried to imagine what it is like for this to be what you see every day – which is the case for the locals – but didn’t really succeed.

I also spotted one of the flashest garages/car ports I have seen in a  while in one of the older buildings! What driveway!

I wandered from here to Cerro Santa Lucia, but that will be the subject of another blog. It’s time to head out of the house again. It’s another beautiful day!