May 10th-11th, 2015
It’s been almost 9 months since I left Canada after my summer visit and headed down to South America for the second leg of my roughly 6 year journey. This means many things, one of the more annoying ones is that many of my belongings are starting to break down. Especially clothes. When you have just a backpacks worth they get a lot more wear then they would at home and finding clothes for a man as big as I am can be quite a challenge in South America, or in fact anywhere outside of North America and certain parts of Europe. Coming back from Easter Island I know I need to resupply, and Santiago seems about as good a place as any to try.
I spend two days doing it all in all, the first going to one of the tallest buildings in South America and the mall at it’s base called the Costanera Center. Here you can find about every brand name store from North America, but prices are very high. It proves a frustrating day, The apple store can’t do anything about small computer issues I’ve been having, and most stores do not carry much in the way of clothing for someone so big. I end up only managing to buy a pair of Athletic shorts from an Adidas outlet for the princely sum of 45 CAD.
To get to the mall take the metro to the Tobalaba stop and, once you’re on the street, look up for the tallest tower you can find on the skyline. But unless you’re looking to spend some serious money I wouldn’t bother.
The day does have a happy ending though as I find a Wendy’s (super rare outside of North America in that this is the first one Ive found) and enjoy a baconator giving me a pleasant, if unhealthy taste of home.
The next day though I’m more successful deciding that if new brand name clothes aren’t on the cards there must be something else this massive metropolis has to offer. And there is… Oh how there is.
Any traveller looking to resupply on clothes, or any fashionista on a budget should not leave Santiago without paying a visit to Calle el Bandera. a street just a block from Santiago’s Plaza de Armas lined with countless used clothing shops. Of course in Santiago it’s not called used clothing, the most common term is Ropa Americana. Basically North American and European brands of lightly used or brand new clothes which are imported and sold for cheap. Since most of the clothing is coming from North America (sort of) I even have a better chance of finding some pants that fit.
To get to La Bandera I end up walking from my hostel in Providencia, traversing a large section of the town, but if you don’t have time for that just get off at the Plaza De Armas Metro stop and the shops are a two minute walk from there.
I find Bandera Street a block behind the cathedral and start up it. The rumours prove to be true as more than half the shops on this 4 or 5 block section north of Plaza de Armas seemed to be clothing stores of all different shapes and sizes. Some have clothes well organized by type and size and others have huge bins of random odds and ends, full of gems I’m sure but hard to find unless you are the most patient shopper. (A note to figure out your chilean pant size for men simply add 12 to your american size. So 36 becomes 48 and 42 becomes 54.)
Since I’m looking for something specific, rather than search through everything, I just ask at the front if they have any pants or shorts big enough for me. It takes a few stores but I find one store has a decent stock of dress type pants in my size, sadly not ideal for travel. Eventually though I do find a nice condition pair of blue cargo pants for 6000 Pesos which is a good enough deal. Only one problem they’re too long.
Luckily the kind shopkeeper directs me to a tailor inside a little galleria (think strip mall) with a dentistry office, tattoo studio and sex shop on the first floor and a sex show in the basement. The men outside seemed baffled that that is not what I’m there for. The tailor takes the work and agrees to do them hem for 3,000 CLP (6 CAD) I also spot a shoe repair man and drop of my shoe’s to be repaired for 4,000 CLP (8 CAD) including new insoles. Then I head out in search of lunch.
On the way I find another bigger more modern mall and buy some new headphones and resisting the charms of burger king, pizza hut, taco bell and McDonalds as well as several frozen yogurt places in the modern mall food court. I’ve got a better plan.
Glad that it’s on the way back to my hostel I head to New Horizon restaurant for a truly incredible meal of Indian food at a surprisingly good price. (3.900 CLP for a salad, a drink, the special dish of the dice, rice and naan bread) I end up sharing the table with a group of chilean Oprah singers as lunch is a hot ticket here and we chat away in Spanish about theatre in general before I make my way back to my ideal home in Santiago, Castillo Surfista Hostel.
