Chile (Central Region - Santiago de Chile)
Providencia and Las Condes
The modern barrios east of the city centre spreading into the foothills of the Andes are home to Santiago’s moneyed elite; the further you go and higher you get the richer the people and bigger the houses. Immediately east, and walkable from Cerro Santa Lucía in about twenty minutes (though it’s easier to take the metro to Manuel Montt, Pedro de Valdivia or Los Leones) is Providencia, a bustling commercial quarter with modern shops, elegant cafés and gleaming new architecture. 
Neighbouring Providencia to the east is Las Condes, best known for its giant shopping mall, Alto Las Condes, which proudly promotes itself as "el Shopping Center más moderno de Latinoamérica", and is served by a free twice-daily shuttle bus from most major hotels (tel 229 1383 for times). Just opposite the mall at avenida Kennedy 9350 is an altogether more compelling reason for coming out here: Casa Lo Matta, the main house of an eighteenth-century hacienda, now housing the fabulous Museo de Artes Decorativas (Tues-Fri 10am-5.30pm, Sat 11am-5.30pm, Sun 2-5.30pm; CH$500). 

Among the highlights of the collection - which includes silverwork, paintings, ceramics, textiles, sculpture and furniture - are a series of colonial Spanish coffers, made of polished wood inlaid with ivory in beautiful, Moorish-influenced geometric patterns. You can get here via a footbridge from the rear entrance of the mall, or if you’re coming straight from Santiago, on bus #388 (marked "Lo Barnechea") from Estación Mapocho. 

Further south, at the end of avenida Apoquindo, is Los Dominicos (Tues-Sun 11am-8pm), a large and lively craft fair with a wide range of beautiful handicrafts, as well as antiques, books, fossils, a restaurant, and live music and dancing at weekends. Buses marked "Apoquindo" come here from the Alameda, or you can take the metro out to Estación Militar then get a taxi colectivo (under the bridge next to the station).