Pull Up A Seat In Chile

In  December 2016, before joining our Seabourn Antarctic cruise to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary, we spent a couple of days in Santiago the capital city of Chile,

Parque Forestal, the city’s green lung, extends for approximately 1.5 km and is a really beautiful space to stroll around, cycle, or to just sit for a while away from the hustle and bustle. There are many trees affording much needed shade and the park is very popular with locals and tourists alike. One thing I noticed was the inordinate number of benches everywhere I looked. I’d never before been in a park with so much seating.

Some of the benches were quite short, not quite wide enough for two people to sit side by side, probably trying to avoid this sort of thing.

Although Santiago is the largest and most economically thriving city in Latin America, it does have a big homeless problem. Of the estimated 12,000 homeless people in Chile,  over half of that number are in Santiago and although many of them do have a job of some description, the minimum wage is so low that they can’t afford the high cost of accommodation.

Some of these unfortunate people save money by living rough in the summer in order to be able to afford to rent somewhere for the winter when the nights can get very cold.

So that’s my somewhat sad tale for XingfuMama’s ‘Pull Up A Seat Challenge’. If you wish to showcase some of the seating you’ve encountered at home or on your travels, just click the link.