Pueblito Los Domínicos

On my second day in Santiago, my boyfriend took me back to my old university, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD). I hadn't been there since July 2018, so it was a bit strange to see it again. I swear it's got bigger than it was before. We walked around the back of the university, which I hadn't done before, and found a little park with two nice dogs!

Although my semester in Chile was amazing overall, my experiences related to the UDD were a mix of negative and positive. But I can definitely say I learned a lot from my time there!

On the way back, we went to Pueblito Los Domínicos (Los Domínicos Village). I had heard of this place before but I wasn't exactly sure what it was. I had thought it referred to the park outside Los Domínicos metro station. It's actually behind the church in the park, and it's like a little world that's completely different to the rest of the city. I used to get on and off the metro at Los Domínicos every day to go to and from the UDD, so it seems weird that I'd never been there before!

There are lots of shops there selling all kinds of arts and crafts that are native to Chile. There's also a waxwork museum and a insect museum. We looked at the insect museum, which was horrifying! There were preserved dead bodies of huge, nasty insects, some of which could apparently be found in Chile. 😨😱

But overall, the village is a really nice place to look around. It feels like walking into the past.

There was one thing I especially liked about Pueblito Los Domínicos - the fact that there were loads of cats there! 😻

There was one cat there who reminded me of my dearly-departed cat Pickle. I stroked her a bit but she wasn't quite as friendly as Pickle!

This is Pickle, for comparison purposes:

So, to sum up, I would recommend Pueblito Los Domínicos, especially if you want to buy souvenirs or if you love cats!

Next up I'll be writing about a city in the north of Chile, La Serena. I was supposed to go there three times before, but none of those trips ended up taking place, so I was curious to discover at last what it was like...