SEIS/ Views from a Santiago Apartment

I love the color of this building seen out our Avenida Mosqueto apartment window in Santiago de Chile. It's a summer morning in mid-December 2007, just before the solstice.

In the upper left of this photo you can see the green hut and the tile roof that appear in this next photo:

A little complex of roof and wall angles. There is a Chilean palm among the trees in the nearby Parque Forrestal. Childishly, I imagine living in the hut with that large stovepipe sticking up from the roof. Staying warm by a wood stove in the chilly winter. Note: no central heating in most Santiago buildings. Wood heat would be very lovely on a gray day.

Leaning out the window a bit and looking further to the right, I see the hills north of the city in the background. Nearer on the right is a little part of the roof of the Museo de Bellas Artes with an interesting ornamental object projecting from the top.

A little lower down and back to the left is this little apt:


Further left, facing northwest:

I love the Chilean palm tree shadow splashed on the red roof. I see various types of construction in this photo: the stone building on the left (a common type downtown), the mortared bricks in the nearer buildings, and the pale mauve brick apartment building on the right. Someone has added a nice penthouse porch to this building. Now look at the parallel curving shadows cast on the corrugated metal roof in the far lower right corner.

I believe that shadow is cast by one of these railings on this apartment building.

No need for a clothes dryer in the Santiago summer. The dry air quickly sucks the moisture out of your wet clothes. And you!

Oops. I was wrong about that shadow. It comes from the patio railing at the very bottom center. I can just see the corrugated metal roof at the lower left. How about that honker black chimney/flue thingy just beyond the patio wall! At the upper left I see a closer view of the penthouse porch I mentioned earlier. And I notice, if I click on the photo to enlarge it, that this building does appear to be brick.


I must have fallen asleep. It's late afternoon already and the sun is in the west. The city air is cooling down. Siesta is over. The streets are beginning to fill with walkers. The best time of a summer day in Santiago is just beginning. Time to head to a café for jugo de frambuesa!

—Michael