Santiago quirks

Have seen some rather interesting things while living here  … here are just a few.  (Please add to the list!)

• Sand is to snow in TO as sawdust is to rain in Santiago.
• It rains a lot in Santiago during its winter months … yet, not one pair of rubber rainboots are sold anywhere.  Leather boots are the in thing.
• It´s pouring outside and you forgot your umbrella?  Don´t fret … people selling umbrellas magically appear at every street corner and metro station when it rains.
• Spring brings beautiful trees blooming with flowers of different sizes and colours. 
• There are more dogs in Santiago streets than there are squirrels in Kingston, ON.
• Unlike the squirrels in Kingston, the dogs in Santiago have street smarts.  They abide by the traffic lights, walk along sidewalks, and can be seen visiting and chatting with neighbouring house dogs through the gate.
• Every house in Santiago is enclosed behind locked gates.
• Public libraries in Santiago are … wait, what public libraries?
• Okay, occasionally one may find a mini-library stand in a metro (subway) station.
• The key to travelling on the bus or metro is the BIP! card, which is rechargeable and scanned at the entrance.  Buses don´t accept change, and if you don´t have a card for the metro a metro ticket can be bought at the booth.
• Santiago takes really good care of their metro system.  The metro trains are faster, cleaner and quieter than the subway trains in TO.  Cleaners can always be seen cleaning the train at the final stop, sweeping the stairs of the station, and shining the hand-rails.  There are even mini-flat screen tvs in their newer trains.
• Some of the newer metro trains in Santiago are just one big train … you can literally get on at the front of the train and walk all the way to the end of the train.  This would be handy in case, you know, you need to look for someone …
• One can always expect to be privately entertained at their car window when stopping at a red light by colourful characters: buskers juggling bricks while standing on giant cylinders; ¨grocers¨ walking up to windows selling bags of beans and strawberries; men/women/children selling all sorts of random things: flowers, chocolates, popsicles, cell phone chargers for automobiles, flags; squeegee boys; beggers (children, mothers holding babies, the old, the blind, the handicapped, the strange … anyone).
• Couples make-out everywhere.  Let me rephrase that, couples can be seen and heard making-out all the time everywhere.  At a bus stop, in the subway train, on the sidewalk, at a park bench, in the mall, etc.  And, all types of couples too: the young, the old, the casual, the office workers …
• Squeezing your partner´s butt cheek in public is considered inappropriate.

Metro de Santiago