Valentino and their Cafe Caribe fans

One of the attractions of Santiago that a few tourist know are our very own “Café con Piernas”, Coffee Shops which in the 80’s became very popular not because of the quality of the coffee, which in Chile is not very good.

The main attraction are these girls in a neon colour dresses with every inch of their impossibly long legs on display.

These establishments are a cross between a coffee bar and a Las Vegas cocktail lounge, no alcohol is served in this places just espressos, cappuccinos and “cortados”, for those “Starbucks” addicts are similar to lattes but served in a glass cup, by waitresses in distractingly revealing outfits.

This is no seedy, red-light district phenomenon, Cafes con Piernas are all over Santiago, especially in downtown area, they are as ubiquitous in Santiago as Starbucks is in any city of the United States.

Coffe with legs

They are already an institution they even have a beauty pageant to choose “Miss Café con Piernas” they even have their own chains: The Café du Brasil; Café Caribe ; Café Haiti.  Valentino as you see , he made his choice !!!