Friday

1. Cazuelas and coffee, 2 P.M.

Strolling the crowded narrow passages of La Vega Central, the city’s biggest, most sprawling market, causes sensory overload, with fruit and vegetable stands staffed by vendors loudly hawking their wares. You will find speckled pink potatoes and avocados you can eat with the skin on, as well as stands serving cheese-stuffed empanadas fresh from the oven, spices and heaps of dried fruit. There is a clutch of small restaurants at the adjacent Vega Chica, many of which serve Chilean and Peruvian food, including hearty cazuelas (stews usually brimming with chicken, corn, carrots and potatoes) that are ideal for a cool day. Detour toward the exit on Dávila Baeza Street for a stop at Café Altura, a popular mobile stand that roasts and sells some of the best coffee in the city (it closes at 4 p.m.).

2. Two for one, 5 P.M.

In the lush Parque Forestal sit two museums (free admission) that share a single building: one that is worth a visit for its neo-Classical architecture and domed glass ceiling alone. The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes collection is heavy on Chilean painters like Luis Vargas Rosas and Roberto Matta, while the ever-changing contemporary art exhibitions at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo are from artists working all over Latin America. Be sure to head down to the basement “zócalo” for thought-provoking modern exhibits in the cavernous space.

3. Carignan and carménère, 7 P.M.

On hip José Victorino Lastarria Street, where a dozen restaurants have opened in recent years, is Bocanáriz, a well-established wine bar that serves hundreds of Chilean bottles. Tasting flights of three wines each (between 4,200 and 20,800 Chilean pesos, or $6.40 and $31.70) are sorted into categories like “coastal” and “biodynamic,” or you can choose to sample any of 36 different vintages. This is the place to learn how to tell a carignan from a carménère, and to try out some of Chile’s up-and-coming sauvignon blancs. Across the street is El Biógrafo cinema, which showed antidictatorship films during Augusto Pinochet’s regime.

4. Dinner and drinks, 8:30 P.M.

Book ahead to reserve one of a small number of tables at Restaurante 040, helmed by the Spanish chef Sergio Barroso, who did a stint at El Bullí before moving to Chile. He takes the best of Chilean ingredients — sea urchin, oysters, edible flowers — and presents them in original ways, like the “ravioli” of smoked fish wrapped in thin woven strips of avocado. Dinner for two with drinks, around 80,000 pesos. Afterward, ask to see “room No. 9” (the hotel has just eight rooms), and you will be led through a false door and into an elevator that delivers you to the rooftop terrace. The craft cocktails here, made with ingredients like cinnamon, passionfruit and top-shelf Chilean pisco, might be the best in the city, and they make an excellent excuse for lingering into the wee hours over the city views.