In the taxi on my way from Santiago airport to the Marriott hotel yesterday afternoon, I noticed that the road that we travelled down that was close to the hotel was bisected by a pretty walking path used by joggers and dog walkers. This morning I decide to walk down it on my way to Parque Bicentenario. The median park runs down Avenida Americo Vespucio Norte, a busy two lane highway that feeds the main freeway. Getting to the park is easy, and it is a shady refuge from the Santiago sun, even relatively early in the morning. Lined by established trees, it has sculpture scattered along the path, along with green guard booths, which are staffed by Vitacura municipal council. I am outnumbered by council maintenance staff, who are trimming grass verges and otherwise maintaining the gardens.
The park comes to an abrupt and pointy end, where the two lanes of traffic converge into four, with no pedestrian crossing or traffic lights. Having scampered across the road in a break in the traffic, I find another pretty park, fenced for dog walkers, and with a fenced playground, which has a council recycling depot attached to it. The park is deserted on this beautiful 28 degree Celsius morning, but there is a steady stream of residents driving up to the recycling bins to dispose of bottles. Following the bend in the highway leads to Parque Bicentenario. Parque Bicentenario is still a work in progress, but is a huge landscaped park that allows off-leash exercise for dogs, including a fenced dog agility area – Gilpin Park crew take note! There is also a very visible campaign happening to encourage dog walkers to use their leash, pick up after their dog, and avoid being fined!
In my last trip to Patagonia, I remember the guide excitedly pointing out two very distant black-headed swans. Parque Bicentenario has a flock of them! They appear to be breeding successfully in inner suburban Santiago – one pair had three large cygnets, and two others were sitting on nests.
In celebration of Chile’s Bicentennial, there is an outdoor photography exhibition showing the interior and exterior of Santiago’s well-known and not so well-known historic buildings.
Parque Arauco, at the back of the hotel, and after which the mall of the same name has been created, is a large inner-urban park with soccer fields, tennis courts, basketball ground, manicured lawns, and a formal rose garden. As I walk by, a group of local students and their teachers are having a sack race and what looks to be a hoolahoop competition in the early evening. Further east, the park has a BMX (or whatever its now called) track that looks to be well-used. In a masterstroke of product placement, a topiaried ivy in the shape of a bear has been wrapped in Coca-Cola banners and is holding an outsized bottle of Coke.
