On the road between the Andes and Chilean vineyards

as it entered the twentieth century Santiago began to expand eastwards into the new barrio alto and north into Bellavista; in no time the city started gobbling up outlying towns and villages at great speed and Gran Santiago today stretches 40 km by 40 km. The rapid economic growth of the last decade has seen high-rise buildings sprouting up in the central area, particularly in Providencia and Las Condes, but the city’s core still sticks to the same street pattern marked out by Pedro de Valdivia in 1541, and its first public space, the Plaza de Armas, is still at the heart of its street life.