4000 Stalls in Barrio Franklin

This private tour begins early at Franklin metro, where a mural inside the station shows a matarife at work — the slaughtermen who gave this quarter its name — then into Población Huemul, built in 1911 as workers' housing and home for a time to Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. From there Héctor takes you into Franklin proper, past the old entrance to the municipal slaughterhouse and into the market that grew in its place. Persa Bío Bío spreads across warehouses, arcades and pavements — Víctor Manuel, Galpón Bío Bío, Galpón San Isidro, Patio Franklin, the antiques persa. Happily, you arrive while the shutters are still going up, so you can look properly before the crowds come in. Between the warehouses you stop at picadas, the small places where locals eat, for sopaipillas, choripán, and the lomito that Santiago is known for. The walk ends over a gin tasting at a former textile works now given over to distilleries and galleries.

Barrio Franklin grew up around the municipal slaughterhouse that opened in 1847, and when that closed, the street traders who had been working the pavements outside moved in. Persa Bío Bío is what it grew into, a history that Héctor is unusually well placed to tell you, having trained as a political analyst before he became a guide. 4,000 stalls fill the warehouses now, without signage or any discernible order, so that a visitor arriving alone will spend a morning among secondhand clothing and miss almost everything else. Héctor will take you on a curated route to the vinyl, to furniture salvaged from television sets, and to picadas that do the lomito properly, stopping wherever your interest holds. Because the tour is completely private, there is time to spend 20 minutes at a single antiques stall if you like. Then, at Factoría Franklin, you meet the muralist who co-founded the brigade that painted Santiago's walls during the Allende years, and leave with a print he has signed.

Born in Arica, in northern Chile, Héctor Leiva Fernández spent most of his childhood and adolescence in Santiago. He graduated as a Political Analyst specialising in International Studies from the University of Santiago, and through his work as a guide and the founder of his own boutique tour operation he aims to give travelers an understanding of Chile's political history and its present. His interest is in the story behind the landmark rather than the landmark itself. Héctor also works as a DJ, which makes him a useful companion in a market full of record stalls and a good source on where to go afterwards. If he is unavailable to host your experience, one of his own trusted and knowledgable guides will take his place.

Comfortable shoes for walking. Bottled water, a sunhat and sunscreen. A small, discreet bag for your things, and a tote or similar if you plan to buy anything — most traders prefer cash.