Santiago's bopping Bellavista district

[EnLinea Media]

The hopping, happening district of Chile's capital between the Mapocho River and San Cristóbal Hill these days throbs with both colour and young people eager to take on the world. Back in the 17th and 18th centuries it was of course quite different - in this case a quarter where the colonial aristocracy erected its grand manses. More recently, in the 20th, it became something of a bohemian quarter of intellectuals and artists, most famously Nobel-Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda, who moved to his house here, La Chascona, in 1955 (now open to visitors, it's one of Bellavista's top draws today). But more than an area of monuments, Bellavista is a neighbourhood to be experienced by... keep reading