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- Santiago & Beyond: From Quiet Streets to the Wild Beauty of Atacama
Santiago & Beyond: From Quiet Streets to the Wild Beauty of Atacama
80s fashion vibes, slow city days, and starry desert nights
Jessie Chen
August 03, 2025
After spending 6 days in Argentina, I was more than satisfied and ready to leave for Chile. I still remembered how I felt when I arrived in Santiago (the capital). The city was so quiet that I could only hear footsteps; the way people dress looks delicate in an 80s fashion. Especially among older men, it's common to see a hat, a nice old-fashioned jacket, and sometimes even a pair of leather shoes. Santiago feels like it moves at its own pace, as if modern time doesn’t quite apply here. Instead, it’s like the city is locked in a unique time capsule, waiting for more people to discover it.
Some older men playing chess on the plaza. You can imagine the style I described by looking at the man wearing hat in the photo
Table of Contents
Why you don’t need a thorough plan in Santiago
I didn’t have a plan in Santiago actually and I don’t think you need one either.
For A, as people say it doesn’t have prominent stuff to see compared to those world-known classics like Paris’s Musee du Louvre.
For B, I personally think the charm of the city isn't about “what” there is to see but about “how” people do things.
For example, when you want to buy some beauty products in a pharmacy, even it’s just a bottle of sunscreen (which is what I bought), you’ll need to ask the staff to help you. Because the layout of the store (they put products on the shelves on the wall and in front of them are counters) makes you not able to get the products on your own.
Circled in red is the counter put in front of the products. Only a few stuff in the right side of the photo are accessible
My Chile list - Atacama Desert
The purpose of visiting Chile is actually to visit Atacama Desert. Santiago is a transferring point to take flights, Atacama is the final destination. I really have to say the view in Atacama is the most unusual and mind-blowing 🤯 I have ever seen. Though it’s called desert, it actually has rich geography varieties: volcanos, geysers, swamps, giant rocks like those in Grand Canyon and 4000+ m mountains covered with snow. As for the activities, you can chase sunset and also do star-gazing. It was such a fulfilling trip that I can’t help but recall it again and again.
Stay tuned! I’ll share more about how I plan and my experience in the following weeks!
