Last Day in Santiago

Today is my last day in Santiago, tomorrow morning I'm flying to Arica. I might spend one night there depending on the bus scheduals to Bolivia. We got back late last night from Con Con and I had a great weekend on the coast. It was Julio's cousin's birthday and his family had a big BBQ. I love the food here! I ate tons of chilean food. Later that night we all headed back to Julio's family's house to hang out and I got mini lesson on how play the conga drums, apparently I was pretty good at it.

Liz, Emily, and I walked around Valparaiso on Saturday and it was very nice. It is often referred to as the city of art because there are many artists living there; and we went into a lot of cute art studios. Unfourtunately, the art has gotten pretty expensive due to the large amont of tourists that visit Valpo. I got a really cute pair of earrings there though. Later Saturday night we went to a salsioteca (like a discoteco, except they play salsa music). Well, to say that I am not the best salsa dancer would be an understatement. I've been taking lessons for awhile now, at school and with friends but I dont think anything I've learned so far was helping me that night. Let's just say I felt bad for my dance partners who got stepped on more than a few times, and I actually accidentally elbowed Julio's cousin in the face :(

After the salsioteca we headed to Vina del Mar where they have a huge clock made from flowers that actually works. I have no idea how, but I took pictures. It's cooler on the coast but the weather was great on Sunday so we all went to the beach. I haven't gotten sunburned again which great because there is a huge hole in the ozone layer abover Chile and the sun is very strong here. We got back to Santiago pretty late Sunday night so I'll be posting pics today. Im excited to be heading to a new country tomorrow!

Tourist Activities!

Today we are going to Concon, which is a popular destination for chilenos during the summer (now). Liz's friend from work, Emily is coming with us as well as Julio's 4 year old nephew who is adorable! We are all going to rent a 3br house and it's only costing $30/day ... total!

In the past few days I've been doing all the touristy stuff here in Santiago. I went to Parque Quina Normal and Parque Metropolitano where there is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary on the hill of San Cristobal, which is visible from the entire city. It is the largest open space in Santiago, complete with two swimming pools and countless gardens. I took the funicular up to see the view which was awesome because you can see the Andes mountains as a backdrop to the city.

I also went to Cerro San Lucia and Plaza de Armas, two other historic sites in Santiago. Cerro San Lucia was built in 1875 and was once a hermitage, then a convent and was converted into a military bastion. There were fountains and winding staircases throughout the remains. I walked around downtown Santiago too and saw La Moneda, where the president works; and some other historic buildings. When we get back on Sunday I'm going to upload my pictures from the past 2 weeks. We probably won't have internet access at the house so until then ... enjoy the snow :)

A busy week in Santiago

After a tiring weekend and lack of sleep we took it easy and decided to stay in Sunday night. During the day we went to the feria, which is a huge market they have in Santiago every sunday. I drank mote, the national chilean drink (according to Julio). It was very sweet and kindof tasted like peach iced tea. We also ate completos, which are hot dogs with tomatoes, avocados, and mayo - very popular here! Then we headed to La Caro to eat lunch with Julio's family and later on Liz and I tried some Chilean wine, which was very good.

I found out about a glassblowing place here in Santiago so we are going to check it out today or tomorrow. Later this week we are going to Concon, which is on the beach near Vina del Mar and Valparaiso (two popular areas to visit). It's about 2 hours west of Santiago. We'll be staying with more of Julio's family there and then come back to Santiago for a few days before we all fly to Arica on the 17th. Liz and Julio are going to Cusco to see Machu Picchu and I'm going to take a bus to La Paz and make my way to the animal refuge. Im really excited to go there! I haven't decided exactly how long I'm going to stay there yet but it will be for at least one month.

I've finally finished uploading all the pictures from Argentina and Uruguay, which would have been impossible if Liz didn't have the internet at her apartment. I've also had a litte extra time on my hands due to a little problem we encountered this weekend. During the bbq we closed the door to the room Im staying in here because a lot of people were smoking (nothing in S. America is non-smoking!). Well, later that night we realized that someone had accidentally locked the doorknob and neither Liz or Julio had a key! So, for the rest of the weekend I slept on the counch and luckilly someone is coming to unlock the door today.

Estoy pasando la raja!

I've been at Liz's for a few days now and Im having a great time here. Getting into Chile was a process though... I noticed that there was a lot of traffic at the border but it was in the middle of the night so I figured I would just go back to sleep. Around 4:30am I woke up and realized that we had to actually get off the bus to go through immigration and customs. It took forever! There were probably over 100people in line already but at least the line was moving. Well, after I waited for about an hour and thought I was all set I realized that I still had my customs form. I was wondering if they were going to check our bags but I figured it out quick enough. We had to take all of our luggage off the bus and get it examined and of course they thought I had fruits and vegetables in my bags which then required extra screening. The whole process took a few hours and I finally arrved in Santiago at about 11am. I realized during all of this that Liz was expecting the bus to arrive at 6am! It's a good thing she wasnt planning on picking me up at the station. Luckilly she's taken plenty of public transportation in Latin America to know that arriving on time means arriving sometime that day.

Liz and Julio both have the next two weeks off of work and they've planned a bunch of stuff to do when I'm here. We went to the mountains one day and went swimming which was a lot of fun. They also had a bbq for me last night and the food was amazing. Tonight we're going to go out with some of thier friends to the discos. It's been nice to sleep in a bed everynight and be able to relax! And I've been able to give my feet a rest from all the walking I was doing before. The weather here is awesome, it' the summer in Chile right now and most days are sunny and between 70-90F. I think I will miss the snow by the time I get home though.

Most of their friends and family only speak spanish so I have been getting A LOT of practice. At first it was really frustrating to not be able to understand everything and even when I could understand I wasnt able to say much. I've been learning a lot and I can already communicate much better than when I arrived. Most Latin Americans will agree that Chilean spanish is very difficult to understand, even for fluent spanish speakers because they speak very fast and use a lot of slang terms. Catchay?

I've stated uploading my pictures and on the right side of the page there are links to the different albums. It's been taking longer than I expected so I'm still adding captions and uploading pictures. Hopefully they will all be up by the end of the week!