Cartagena

Cartagena was the fashionable beach of the Santiago elite in the first decades of the twentieth century, with villas, staircases and terraces built down to the sea, and it went out of fashion decisively as the wealthy moved to Zapallar, Cachagua and Vina - leaving a mass resort with faded grand architecture, which is what it still is. In the cemetery on the hill lies Vicente Huidobro, the creacionista poet, who was buried facing the sea in 1948 under an epitaph he wrote himself. His house nearby is a small museum. The town gets very crowded in summer with day trippers from Santiago.

History

In the seventeenth century the country around the town was a major producer of wheat, shipped to Peru and Spain through the port of Cartagena. From 1870 the Chilean intellectual elite built holiday houses here and made it a fashionable seaside resort, and Cartagena became a commune in 1901 (Wikipedia, Cartagena, Chile).

What you'll find

• A grand resort gone downmarket - villas and terraces from the 1900s.
• Huidobro's grave on the hill - facing the sea, with his own epitaph.
• His house as a museum - small, near the cemetery.
• A mass summer resort - full of Santiago day trippers.

When to go

December to March; the town is quiet the rest of the year. Half a day.

Things to know

The faded architecture is genuinely faded and parts are derelict. Beaches are crowded and not clean in peak weeks. The museum has limited hours. It is a very different coast to Zapallar an hour north.

Nearby

Isla Negra and Neruda's house are north; San Antonio is south.

Key facts