I haven't seen the parking meters yet but I was told by a patient that they had the street closed off on one side to dig holes in order to install meters. I bet those meters will not last 1 week as people would just rip them out from their roots. They want to charge 5 pesos / 15 mins. That is just plain crazy as there is never any parking on calle del sol in the day time. Santiagueros will not allow this to happen.
The streets were calm last night. I was able to go in and out of bella vista without any trouble. However I was told that riots start without any warning and all of the sudden you could find yourself in a road block with burning tires and a mob throwing rocks at you. Don't forget, santiago is not like NYC where the bad neighborhoods are quite far away ex: wash hts. bronx etc. You could reach anywhere in santiago within 10 mins. So if you have to go to Japut dumit, you might get there without any incident but 30 mins later when you have to come back the same way, you might meet trouble.
BuT I have been staying at home lately and avoiding night driving in areas where I don't belong.
Regards
AZB