Santiago, Isla Negra, la playa, y mas

Hola,

I've almost reached the end of my two weeks here, but I'm having so much fun! On Monday we went to Santiago to visit the Santiago Stock Exchange (Bolsa Comercial de Santiago) and other sites in the city. We learned about the history and services of the stock exchange, which now works entirely on an internet platform (so the historic trade room was nearly empty), and which is responsible for the growth of the strong Chilean economy.

We then visited some other sites in Santiago. The city is very crowded. We walked in an area that I assume was downtown, which had mainly pedestrian traffic, but was very crowded. We were told to watch for pickpockets as a precaution, but no one was robbed. I don't know if this was really more dangerous than a crowded U.S. city or not. There were a lot of shoe shines, which I found peculiar, and a street performer that I couldn't understand, but seemed like his act must have been very funny. He had an action figure of Goku from Dragonball Z that he got involved with his show. I've seen some Dragonball Z t-shirts for sale here too, so I guess that show got pretty popular in Chile too. Some people took pictures with a very friendly police officer and his police dog, it's good that the police are friendly here.

For lunch we went to a seafood restaurant, which brought out ridiculous amounts of appetizers. It was mostly shellfish though, which I don't like, so I didn't eat those. We were given a choice of meat or fish for an entree, and I made the mistake of ordering meat. I was given a huge piece of steak, which normally I would've thought was great (although I wasn't given a steak knife so it was hard to eat), but the people who ordered fish received platters of really good fish that they luckily shared with me. The swordfish and salmon were very tasty! We were also serenaded by three guitar players, who sang songs that I actually recognized, such as "Guantanamera," "La Bamba," and a song that I knew because the band Cake covered it in English, "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps." It was a very good meal.

We then took an incline up a very large hill to get the best view in the city. This incline was similar to the ones in Pittsburgh and Valparaiso, but much larger. The view from the top was amazing! There was also a large statue of the Virgin Mary at the top. We could see the whole city, which was much larger than I had imagined! I'm not sure how it compares with a city such as New York City, but it was absolutely huge! The city, along with the rest of Chile, is located between two mountain ranges, the shorter coastal ones, and the very large, snow-covered Andes. Unfortunately Santiago has a problem with smog and its rare that you can get a view of the Andes. However, it rained a few days earlier, so the smog was not as heavy as normal. We didn't get a great view of the Andes, but we could see a few mountain peaks that rose above the smog, which were beautiful. It was unfortunate that we couldn't see the whole mountain, and smog covered the horizon in every direction. Overall, the view was truly amazing though. We then did a little bit of shopping in Santiago before returning to Vina, where I had Chinese food for dinner and returned to the karaoke bar, Rufino, to sing songs and hang out for a couple hours at night.

Yesterday (Tuesday), we went to Isla Negra, one of Pablo Neruda's three homes. Pablo Neruda was a famous Nobel Prize winning poet from Chile. This home was located by the water and was built like a ship. The doors were very small and you had to watch your head, and the house had an overall maritime theme. But Neruda built the house like a museum (which allowed it to easily become one after his death), and housed his various collections there. The man collected everything, and I mean everything. He collected a lot of figureheads, statues of women or war heroes that were placed at the front of a ship. He collected bugs, butterflies, sea shells, and even had a narwhal tusk and giant clam! His house also had a gorgeous view of the ocean, and we later spent time at the beach outside his house. He and his wife were buried in front of his house in an area built to look like the forward deck of a ship. After leaving Isla Negra, we then stopped to see the world's largest pool, located here in Chile. I tried to take pictures, but there was no way to capture what I saw on film or in words. This pool was huge! Nearly a mile long! It was right by a beautiful beach too (I guess it was dangerous to swim in the beach), and was filled with salt water. There were even boats in the pool. The pool was for a bunch of fancy apartments that apparently had their own smaller pools. It was really unnecessary, but cool to see. I then got pizza for dinner at a place called Telepizza, it was pretty much like Domino's in Chile.

Today we had a free morning which we planned to use to go see an outdoor graffiti museum in Valparaiso, but we found out this morning that we had to meet for a group lunch at 12:30, so we didn't have time to go. Instead we did some local shopping before getting lunch at Entremesas (not sure if I spelled that right) for empanadas. I ordered too much food and couldn't finish, but the three different empanadas I ordered were delicious. One was picante de pollo, a mildly spicy chicken, one had ham and corn, and one had manjar (which is kind of like a mix between caramel and peanut butter, it was in a donut I got the other day too, it's sticky and sweet, really yummy). All three were also full of cheese, and I walked out feeling like I was going to become lactose intolerant. A lot of food here is very cheesy and greasy. Mom and Dad, if you're reading this, please don't make anything with too much cheese for a while when I get home!

After lunch we went to the beach to play some games. The Chilean students introduced us to some very... interesting games. Some were normal, such as sack races and tug of war, while others involved coupling up and popping a balloon without using hands or a girl rolling a ping pong ball up a guy's leg and out the other leg... that was a weird one. I was pretty much the only person that made the mistake of wearing long pants instead of shorts, which made that game even more funny.

After playing those games some of us were taking pictures near the water. Everyone else was wearing shorts and was barefoot, but I was wearing pants, socks, and shoes. I was trying not to get wet, but then a huge wave came and I got soaked! I'm not quite sure how to dry everything yet... Tonight we're having another salsa lesson and I can wear my dress shoes, but I need my sneakers to go horseback riding tomorrow, I hope they dry by then. It's unfortunate that my shoes got soaked, but I had a lot of fun at the beach, and after taking off my shoes, got my feet in the water. Most Chileans would not go swimming at this time of the year because it's almost winter, but the water actually seemed pretty warm.

So obviously I've been having a lot of fun here! Soon we're leaving for our last Salsa lesson (out of four), and I'll have to figure out what to do for dinner after that. Tomorrow we're going horseback riding and having a farewell dinner at night. On Friday night, we fly out of Santiago, and I'll be back in the States on Saturday!

Adios.