I suppose Santiago is like any big city- there is always someone playing music in the subway with their case sitting out for tips, but one day a 4-man band got on the subway and played music for a few stops. They were great and people gave tips. How you stay standing on the buses or the subway without holding on to anything is a mystery to me. Most drivers hit the gas, then hit the break, repeat... nothing smooth about public transportation.
The other evening, a guy got on the bus with his electric guitar and an amplifier. I thought he was taking the bus to his gig, but he played a canned music track and then played electric guitar. He was so into it for the 15 minutes I was on that bus and I don´t know how he could stay upright while making good music.
It is common for entertainers to stand in front of lanes of traffic at a red light and do something entertaining until the cars get the green light - so they do their thing and walk the first cars in the lanes for tips. I saw two young ladies taking turns twirling flags, a guy juggling, a guy juggling on a unicycle, but the most amazing was the guy who attached a rope from light to light (in front of the stopped traffic!) and walked the tightrope while juggling. I am always amazed at what people do for coins! There are regular beggars who don´t entertain but are physically disabled, and I have seen some street people sleeping it off, but not many.
The Carabineros are the police in all of Chile - they don´t have local police, only the military police or Carabineros. They are standing and walking around everywhere. You can´t go very far without seeing one or a pair of them. I have never seen them be aggressive and it is nice to know they are around. I have seen them regularly in every place I´ve visited.
I´ve seen and heard quite a few demonstrations in the streets, which is also interesting because the people are taking action against some things they are concerned about. One big one was because the government wants to consolidate their version of social security as a government program.
Chile had a coup and the U.S. backed dictator Pinochet took over the country in 1973 by killing the popular Socialist president, Allende. He imposed curfews and took drastic measures to quiet those who disagreed. He was a dictator so you can imagine the atrocities. He was ousted in 1990 and later arrested for crimes against people. My friends say the nature of Chilean people is to go along quietly, but since Pinochet, many are speaking out. So these peaceful demonstrations seem to be a good thing.
Dogs! Street dogs are everywhere I've been and are accepted as part of Chile. They sleep wherever they want and everyone walks around them. In parks they sometimes sleep on the benches. I've seen several instances in busy Santiago where the dog will stand on the corner with the people and cross the 8 lanes when the people cross. They are big and docile. They get food from trash or restaurant owners leave the scraps outside for them after closing time. It is odd to see dogs sleeping anywhere and everywhere.
Also including 2 pics of my Spanish school and the coffee spot for our daily break. I am sitting with Yuko from Japan.
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