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Symposium Location

The symposium will be organized by the Center for Web Research of the Dept. of Computer Science of the University of Chile in downtown Santiago. The symposium will take place in the Gorbea Auditorium at the Third floor of Escuela de Ingeniería, Universidad de Chile. Av. Beaucheff #850, Santiago.

Santiago, the capital of Chile, is an energetic city in the Maipo valley and the foothills of the Andes mountains, with the Mapocho River crossing it from east to west. The most remarkable thing about Santiago, with its 5 million inhabitants, is perhaps its diversity. It is a city with many faces, great and varied changes, a social and political landscape that sometimes takes us back to the colonial city it once was, and also well known for excellent seafood and wine. The Pacific ocean, vineyards or ski resorts are all at most 100kms away.

See also: Wikipedia page for Santiago. Flickr pictures of Santiago.

• Hotel Conde de Ansúrez, 2 Stars, Santiago
  • Av.República 25, Metro República,
    Closest to venue, 15-20 minutes walk.
    Icludes Breakfast and Wifi.
  • Fono: (2) 696 0807 / (2) 671 8376
  • Rates:
    • Single for CLP$ 21.000.- Plus 19% tax
    • Double for CLP$ 26.000.- Plus 19% tax
    • Triple for CLP$ 30.000.- Plus 19% tax
    • Cuadruple for CLP$ 33.000.- Plus 19% tax

Santiago Landmarks and Museums

• Palacio de la Moneda - holds the house of government, which you can walk across alter a brief bagagge check, unless there’s an extraordinary event that day.
• Centro Cultural Palacio La Moneda located under the plaza right in front of the palace, you can find a recently opened (2005) art museum that also has a crafts shop with a large scale map of Chile.
• Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes holds Chile’s visual art history, and is located in Parque Forestal, a nice place to walk by. The rear part of this building holds the Museum of Contemporary Art. If coming northward through Parque Forestal, don’t miss the ice creams at Emporio La Rosa.
• Museo de Arte Precolombino major antrhopology museum, unmissable.
• Plaza de Armas, plaza where the city was born into what it is nowdays, still has most of its colonial buildings, some in great shape still, including the Cathedral, Post Office and Museo Histórico Nacional (National History Museum).
• Estación Mapocho old train station with beautiful architecture now turned into cultural center.
• Paseo Ahumada, walkway where you can sit to look at the flow of the city and many of its different characters.
• Vega Central, main vegetable and fruit market, bursting in life, not recommended for weary folks.
• Cerro Santa Lucía, small hill in the heart of downtown, has a fort on top. Good for overlooking the downtown of the city if in a rush, sketchy when dark.
• Cerro San Cristóbal, the metropolitan park is a large hill almost amidst the city, you can reach its top where virgin mary guards the city. On clear days this view is amazing (this means when smog allows). On weekends it will have lots of people jogging and cycling.
• La Chascona what used to be Pablo Neruda’s home in Santiago, now one of his museums, in Bellavista.
• Pueblito Los Domínicos old monastery turned into craft shop gallery, located at the foothills of the Andes, beautiful scenery on clear days. Craft is great quality but not cheap.
• Parque Mahuida one of the closest places to get a look of what nature used to be in the Mapocho Valley, great for organizing a barbecue with friends, for hiking or cycling, also has a restaurant. Not easy to reach on public transport. This park is located in the lower mountains of the andes and overlooks the whole city.

Relted: walking tour of Downtown Santiago.

Dining

You can find all kinds of food in Santiago, it is growing each year more cosmopolitan in terms of food. Here are some of the major restaurant clusters:

• Barrio El Bosque/ El Golf (aka Sanhattan), this is a modern part of town, here you can feel like in any modern city of the world. The place is full of high-end restaurants, many focused on fish and seafood, most places have their menus at the front door in Spanish and English, so you can choose in a walk before making a choice. Chilean Lobster is not to be missed, it comes from the island of Robinson Crusoe. This area also has a huge wine store: El Mundo del Vino.
• Barrio Bellavista, cute architecture, an area full of bars, pubs and restaurants. Will get noisy on weekends. Check the places in Constitucion street.
• Plaza Ñuñoa in a residantial area of the city, Plaza Ñuñoa will give you yet another face of the city, at the center of the plaza is the Ñuñoa municipality building, and around it, the pubs and restaurants. It also has the theater of Universidad Catolica, with great quality plays, La Batuta with live rock every night. [Walking tip] If you have a free day and want to take a nice walk through a cute and silent residential area, we recommend walking through García Moreno street in Ñuñoa, it starts in Tobalaba, near Bilbao station (line 4), and you can walk your way up to plaza ñuñoa for a refreshing beer, this walk should take about an hour and you’ll see samples of architecture from different decades, tip not on any tour guide ;-)
• Borde Río modern food mall in Vitacura, not easy to reach but high end cuisine.
• Mercado Central, fresh fish market, also has fish restaurants, beautiful old architecture, very touristic area.

Metro

The subway is one of the city’s prides. Fast, clean and efficient, its tracks have grown these last years to currently span most of the city. Some of its stations have notable architecture, and on Line 1, most stations have been decorated with local art. See Wikipedia and Flickr.

Of special note

• Estación Universidad de Chile, covered in wallpaintings by Mario Toral, depicting the history of Chile.
• Estación La Moneda, contains a set of large oil canvases by Guillermo Muñoz Vera portraying Chile’s landscape variety.

Short trips from Santiago

• Cajón del Maipo a mountaineous valley from Santiago upwards to the Andes, the higher you reach, the more surreal the landscape is, and the fewer urbanization you’ll find. Lower towns have cute countryside food, great mid afternoon coffe and cake stops. Also some cabins, swimming pools, barbecues.
  • Monumento Natural El Morado, at the high end of Cajón del Maipo, this is a strong three hour hike that will leave you walking over a glacier, surrounded by breathtaking mountains, if you’re into hiking and nature, this trip can make your whole visit to Chile worthy. More info, some pics.
  • Baños Colina, at the very end of the road, these amazing hot springs can be a real treat. You can camp here, or rent a room at the town of Baños Morales, about an hour down the road. Pools are very hot, best early morning or late afternoon.
• Valparaíso this amazing port city is Human Patrimony according to Unesco. You’ve probably heard about it, now don’t miss it. Has some great BnBs and great restaurants inside its hills.
• La Sebastiana, Neruda’s museum-house in Valparaíso, some of his amazing collections and an unsurpassable view of the port from his bedroom.
• Viña del Mar, right next to Valparaíso, Viña is a beautiful coastal city, more mellow and less extravagant than Valpo, nice to know both on the same visit.
• Algarrobo, in a sector called Litoral Central, this is a quiet summer-town with some nice colonial houses and very calm sea. Good for relaxing unless it's Jan-Feb.
• Isla Negra also in Litoral Central, this corresponds to the most amazing of Neruda’s museum-houses.

For more information, help and reservations for short trips you can contact our travel agent, Sylvia Araya at

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SPIRE 2007 organized by CWR | icons by famfamfam