Final Days in Santiago

Orientation with the Ministry of Education began at 11:00 Sunday morning, the 26th. It was just a little preview of what we were getting into. The leaders are all really nice, great people – Rio, Gonzalo, Steve – but overall, God help them. We spent two or so hours going over some basics and getting our passports and stuff prepped for the visa process. Afterwards, we all grabbed lunch and the majority of us tromped off to go museum touring, since all museums in the city are free on Sundays. This day marked museums number two and three that I would see while there.

Our first stop was at the Pre-Colombian History museum. There were artifacts from all over Latin America, stretching from Mexico down to Tierra del Fuego. It was a well kept, if somewhat oddly laid-out museum. It was a bunch of interloping square and rectangle rooms with no set path. For those who like to wander, that’s fine, but I started wondering if I was just walking by stuff I had already seen. Anyway, I was very happy to find these little figures chewing coca leaves, something I had become obsessed with while in Peru. Yes, coca is what is used to make cocaine, but the actual plant has so many natural, beneficial properties – most notably, it boosts metabolic and gastronomic activity and helps with nausea and altitude sickness. Sadly, coca isn’t really present in southern Chile.


The coca chewing figurines in the museum, and a church nearby.
After the pre-Colombian museum, we hopped on over to the Plaza de Armas for the Chilean history museum. This mostly covered from the 1500’s when conquistadors came to the country. It detailed the wars with the indigenous people and other South American countries up to the 1970’s, but then just petered out. Oh well. By this time I was just exhausted, and went home to shower and rest for a little bit.

But my rest was short-lived, as Patrick showed up with flowers and then we escaped for dinner at the premiere Indian restaurant in town (the head chef is from Bangladesh, so yeah, it’s authentic). Turned out I was rather unhappy with my chicken tandoori – I obviously need to learn my Indian food names so I know what’s what – but Patrick’s coconut chicken curry, and the naan, were great. So, not an overall fail – but India Pavilion in State College has this place beat, I think. Of course, I had to have Bravissimo afterwards. More gelato. So good. So sue me.

Monday saw us getting up bright and early to be herded to the instituto with the rest of the volunteers. Let me take a moment to describe the overall program: the Centro de Volunatarios is the main route for volunteering with the Ministry of Education in Chile. Several organizations, such as WorldTeach, also recruit people for the program, and then we all get lumped together. So, while the past 10 days had been nice and cozy with our group of 22, we were now in a group of 128 volunteers, including ourselves. They split us by north and south groups, and away we went.

Needless to say, I felt very bored with the Ministry orientation. The groups were too big and the information was too disorganized. Most often, the presenters talked at us instead of with us, and we were given very little to do on our own. It also didn’t help that I slept through the majority of the presentations – but hey, had they been interesting, I would have stayed awake.

Granted, some of the presenters were great people, especially if you got to talk to them on their own. This was also their first year partnering with the instituto, so granted, things were not expected to go over cleanly. But when people cannot even work a simple Powerpoint presentation, it’s clear we have a problem on our hands.

However, the Spanish classes were worth it. I ended up in a basico (basic/beginner) class with a couple of the WorldTeach crew, and some of the other volunteers. Our teacher, Maria, was simply awesome, and I actually learned during that class. However, it was slotted for the end of the day – 3:30 to 5:00 – so it was hard concentrating. All we wanted to do was go back to the hostel, eat, and roam around Santiago.

Tuesday night put us at the hostel with a few bottles of wine before hitting up a pool hall. This was quite entertaining, as we had two tables for our group and played a couple games before deciding we sucked, and it was way too cold. I love playing pool when it’s 40 degrees out, let me tell you.


Allison taking a good shot.
Thursday night, Patrick and I grabbed dinner near La Moneda and scrambled around the centro trying to find tickets for the soccer game that night. That was a fail, so we just hopped on the metro and went out towards the Estadio Nacional. This stadium is positively huge, and feels even bigger than Beaver Stadium (and I imagine it is). Patrick and I got a couple cheap tickets and went in to find ourselves only a few rows off the field. However, as there was a track around the field, you were further away than in a usual stadium. There also weren’t a whole lot of people there because it was only an exhibition match for Universidad de Chile versus the Argentino Juniors.

First, the B-sides played and that was quite entertaining because the score ended up 6-4 after 45 minutes of play. It seemed like every time I looked away, someone scored. Also, up till then, everything had been quite tame. However, when the real teams took the field, things got interesting. Huge chants went up from the stadium, accompanied by a gigantic drum beat… and flares? Yes, flares.


A view of the Estadio Nacional, and the flares set up by the fans.
This game was nowhere near as high scoring, but it was a good time palling around with Patrick and most of the WorldTeach crew. Getting home also proved an adventure, as the metro was closed by then and we had to depend on buses.

And then finally, Friday. An end to this hellish week. By then I was getting awfully antsy and just wanted to get to my placement and start teaching already. It also didn’t help that we only found out where we were going on, oh, Wednesday night was it? Thanks for the notice, Ministry – four days before we leave, we find out exactly where we’re leaving to. Me? I was off to Angol. More on that later.

The Ministry threw us a giant party at the hostel that night. They pulled out all the stops – every table had two bottles of wine and two bottles of pisco sour, complete with a pretty nice set-up under a tent. We had a few people speak at the beginning, congratulating us on finishing the week and wishing us luck for the coming months. And then it was time to run amuck. This was helped along by massive amounts of food and more bottles of wine that just appeared out of nowhere.


My roomies for the duration of Santiago, the crew going to Angol, and a crazy bunch of us.
Afterwards, the WorldTeach crew ditched the party and took it out to Bellavista, the bohemian neighborhood full of clubs and bars. Our field directors, Thomas and Meghan, joined us, along with several of their friends and random Chileans. I tuckered out rather early, however.

The next morning saw everyone getting up (some hungover) to leave the hostel by 9 o’ clock for their placements. It was sad seeing everyone go – we had just spent the past 16 days together and had gotten used to our routine of breakfast, class, dinner, fun. And now we had to face the reason why we all came here: teaching English to Chilean students in the south.


Saying goodbye to the majority of the crew, and sending them off on the bus.
Four of the 22 stayed behind at the hostel, however: me, Allyson, Connor, and Jenny. We were the four destined for Angol, a town in Araucania, the 9th region. We spent the day running errands, and Allyson was the unfortunate victim of a robbing in broad daylight. For that matter, police in Santiago are prejudiced against Americans – at least ours were – and that turned into a disaster.

And at about midnight that night, we were off to Angol…

La Campana

Saturday morning found us all scrambling to finish packing and lug everything down Londres to the bus, which could not make it down the narrow, cobbled street we had come to love. Of course, everything ran a little bit late and we pulled into Hostelling International, our new hostel in Barrio Brasil (still in Santiago Centro, but towards the western edge). It took awhile to get everyone sorted out so that I could toss my stuff in my room, repack my backpack with Patrick, and scurry off as soon as possible.

We took the metro down to Estacion Central, one of the two major bus terminals in Santiago. We had to walk through a mall to get to the terminal, but man was it huge. It had a string of dozens of booths for different companies and destinations, and several lines of buses heading out or coming in. Within minutes, we found a suitable bus, threw our backpacks underneath, hopped on, and we were gone.

Turns out, these buses put Greyhound to shame. The regular bus was far more comfortable than a Greyhound: you had a little more room, you could recline the seats more, and they were pretty clean and nice. The views coming out of the city and heading into a town called Limache were absolutely beautiful.


The mountains coming out of Santiago, and a bright yellow house in Limache.
We hopped off the bus in Limache and caught a micro (small bus with a set route) to the smaller town of Olmué. This was actually a gorgeous little mountain town that I wouldn’t mind taking a day or two to relax in. Supposedly they do rural food really well there. However, it was not our main attraction for the day. We soon caught another micro that dropped us off at the bottom of the hill to one of the three park entrances for Parque Nacional La Campana.


A view of Cerro La Campana from within the park.
Here, I was greeted with the first realization that as a foreigner, I will get charged more for parks here whether I like it or not. It was 1,500 pesos apiece to enter the park, and another 6,000 pesos to camp overnight – a total of 9,000 pesos (roughly $18). I know that’s probably cheap, but it was at least a thousand or so pesos more than a Chilean would have to pay. Boo hiss.

I have to say, though, the cost was well worth it. Patrick and I had our pick among the campsites, and chose one under the trees by a stream set off a bit from the trail. We tossed down our packs and were then off to explore the trails. The park itself covers 8,000 hectares and was designated a World Biosphere Reserve in 1984 by UNESCO, mainly to protect an endangered palm species. The main draw of the park, though, is Cerro La Campana, a breathtaking mountain that Charles Darwin climbed in 1834. This was extremely exciting to the biology nerd buried inside me. Sadly, the trails to its summit were closed, and we could only make it about halfway up before I got frustrated with the tree cover and made the executive decision to find some decent views of the valley from an adjoining mountain that we saw through all the trees.


Panorama looking towards the mountain we were going to climb next.
So we took a different trail up to the adjoining mountain and found some things along the way. For one, the place must be used by ranchers because there were several signs of cows left behind (ahem, cow pies). Secondly, a couple abandoned mines had been fenced off and led to who-knows-where under the mountains. The first one wasn’t very deep, maybe fifty feet, but the second one stretched on for quite awhile.


An abandoned mine; they were probably exploring for minerals or copper.
We climbed a little higher up above the mines to watch the sun set and cast a reddish glow on Cerro La Campana up above us. It made me really want to come back and climb that peak, because on a good day, you can see clear to Santiago and the Andes in one direction, and possibly clear to the ocean on the other.


Panorama looking towards Cerro La Campana at sunset.
As it started getting dark, we scrambled down to camp. Patrick set up the tent while I started preparing dinner. He definitely pulled out all the stops for this one; no nasty camping food. We had sandwiches with avocado and tomato for an appetizer, followed by Mexican rice with sliced salami in it, then some chocolates for dessert.

After clean-up, we grabbed our flashlights and headed back up the trail to watch the stars. Sadly, the moon was a quarter to a half full, so it obscured about half of the night sky. The other half, though – I have never seen stars like this, not even in Peru (mostly because it was so cloudy and rainy, and when it wasn’t, we hit a week with a full moon in the rainforest). The stars were ridiculous. The Southern Cross, which I have never looked at closely before, was right overhead of us. We could also see the wispy strands of the Milky Way as the backdrop. There were several shooting stars, and some really fast moving plane – military? – but we didn’t see any satellites. Interesting. After a while watching stars, it started to get freezing cold and windy, so we packed it back down into the tree cover and took refuge in the tent.

The next morning, I managed to kick Patrick out of the tent early because I needed to make it back to my hostel for the visa process that morning (and I still want to strangle whoever scheduled that at the Ministry – 11 o’ clock meeting on a Sunday when we were supposed to have the entire weekend free!). We met a very interesting micro driver and chatted with him on his break. He spoke Spanish, German, and a little bit of English, and told us about how he was saving to take a trip down south to Patagonia next year. Definitely not your average micro driver. We shared our cookies and stories, and then off he took us to catch a bus back to Santiago. We got a nice view of Olmué in the morning, watching the sun come up over the mountains.


A bus stop in Olmué, and the mountains rolling into Santiago.
Our driver made an unscheduled stop to let us off for a bus heading back to Santiago. We climbed on, watched the mountains as we were coming into the valley of Santiago, and then passed out for the remainder of the ride. I then got back to my hostel about 20 minutes before my meeting – no problems! And then my orientation with the Ministry of Education started…

Exploring Santiago

Monday the 20th began another sleepy week of orientation activities and running amok afterwards. We got some lessons on teaching in the target language by holding a class in Spanish. I just sort of sat there blankly staring because, well, I have zippo Spanish background. Then we got some information on travel in Chile and had a group lunch with pizza ordered from Pizza Hut. Wait, Pizza Hut, what? The rest of that day didn’t really register with me.

Tuesday morning was a special viewing of the 2004 Chilean film, Machuca. It was set around the 1973 coup seen through the eyes of a young, high class boy who makes friends with a boy from the lower class through their private school. This was a very interesting look at that time period and how the different social classes were affected by Pinochet’s takeover. I don’t know how available this film is in the states, but if you want a good foreign film, pick this up. The latter part of the day involved more classes, then bumming around because I was so tired. I think I fell asleep on the hostel couch while Patrick read about Angkor Wat.

Wednesday was a much busier day. We were doing lesson plan presentations on Thursday, so orientation was cut short after lunch and we were given the rest of the day to do our plans. I was assigned the topic of introductions, and planned some games on how to introduce yourself in English. The cafeteria/lounge area in the hostel was officially taken over by all the WorldTeach crew, busily working on materials for the lesson plans – and some wine bottles to help lubricate the process.

The entire Thursday morning was devoted to presenting pieces of our lesson plans in three small groups, led by our field directors, Meghan and Thomas, and a former director, Josh, who now works for the instituto. I lost on “nose goes” and presented first; I was so happy to get it over with. It was very fun presenting and participating in the various plans, and receiving very, very helpful feedback from everyone and our group’s leader, Meghan. We also had a great view because we were on the seventh floor of the instituto.


View from our 7th floor classroom at the instituto.
The rest of the day was given over to more orientation, before I went home to spruce up a little – I was going to Patrick’s host family’s house for dinner that night and wanted to make a good impression. They are definitely what the Chileans identify as cuico – upper class. They lived out in the Viticura commune of Santiago, which is actually quite a bit away from my hostel in the Santiago Centro.


Viticura may look close to Santiago Centro, but it was usually a 45 minute bus ride.
Their house was really nice and spacious. There were only three people who lived there: Rita, the asthmatic but sincerely kind grandmother; Fabiola, the mother who I can only describe as merry; and her four year old daughter, Flo. Flo was a little terror, pulling on her grandma’s scarf and terrorizing the dog and crawling under the table while barking. However, she warmed up to me before dinner – something that took Patrick days to accomplish. Since they were of Italian origins, our dinner had a definite Italian flair: pumpkin soup and bread, followed by rich ricotta cheese raviolis in an alfredo sauce, and then a very sweet flan for dessert. It was great being with them, and Patrick was kind enough to translate cause I didn’t understand a thing going on. They also demonstrated their infamous Chilean hospitality by saying anytime I was in Santiago, I could call and come over.

Friday was our final day of WorldTeach orientation. We spent our time reviewing what we had learned and writing buena ondas (basically, props) to each other. It was a generally feel good time for everyone before we had the afternoon off. I ended up palling around with Meghan, Jenny, Kevin, and Matt, and making our way to the Mercado Central. This is a huge market near the river that contains a couple rings of fish and produce sellers, mingled with restaurants and some more stalls and bigger restaurants in the middle.


A panorama outside the Mercado Central, looking towards Cerro San Cristobal.
We were hawked constantly by people trying to get us to eat at their place, and we eventually settled at one tucked in a corner away from everything. It was definitely a good choice. I got my chance to tick off a food from my list – conger eel, known as congrio here. Despite it’s name, it is not actually an eel; it is more of a streamlined, marbled fish found in Chilean waters. The meat comes in several grades, designated by different colors.


Fish! The congrio is the marbled one in the center.
My dish was congrio caldillio (conger eel soup, pretty much). It was absolutely fantastic. It was a huge chunk of conger eel surrounded by chunks of potato, tomato, red pepper, onions, cilantro, and various spices. It was served still boiling and cooking. I let it cool for a few minutes, and then dug in. Conger is definitely a different tasting fish, and it’s very hard to describe the taste. There is no denying that this is the tastiest fish I have ever had, and puts all fish in the U.S. to shame. I polished the entire bowl off and proceeded to gross everyone out by sucking the jellied marrow from the spine of the conger - so rich and delicious. I then tucked in to some of Kevin’s marisco (seafood) stew and some of Jenny’s leftover mashed potatoes. This place was just awesome.


My congrio caldillio, and Kevin's mariscos.
Afterwards, we took a stroll to the Plaza de Armas to take in the socialist and artist gathering there. I watched a street artist make a chalk drawing of Jesus, and was reminded of Arts Fest at PSU and how I missed it. I was sad for a second, and then thought – why be sad? I’m in Chile!


The awesome street artist, a view down a Santiago street, and artists in the Plaza de Armas.
Our stroll eventually took us back to the hostel, and I lazed around for a little bit before going out to nab gelato in Providencia with Patrick at my favorite place, Bravissimo. The gelato there was awesome, and I was very pleased in the first week to find they had lucuma flavors. I made my way back to the hostel just in time to spruce up to go out with the WorldTeach crew to officially celebrate the end of our orientation. We went to La Chimeneria (I think was its name) and took up an entire room for ourselves on the third floor. It was our entire crew, plus some of Thomas’s friends, Josh, and Meghan’s pololo (boyfriend). Thomas loved the pie de limon we got him, and we also gave Meghan a bottle of wine to say thanks for the great 10 days with them. We all shared tons of appetizers (seafood, meat, cheeses, veggies, bread, you name it), drinks (pisco, wine, beer, and more), and ran up a bill of roughly 220,000 pesos (about $440, before tip) for 28 people. Oops.


Thomas digging into his pie de limon, my delicious pisco tropical, and some of the WorldTeach crew.
Afterwards, we all made our way back to the hostel to pack a little and crash after 2. We were moving hostels around 10:30 in the coming morning, and I had to pack my backpack for my upcoming camping trip. I didn’t want to leave our cozy corner in Hotel Plaza Londres, but sadly, we had to. Our orientation with the Ministry of Education was to start the following Monday, and, well… that’s another story.

History Lessons

WorldTeach orientation officially lasted from July 15 – 24. It was a whirlwind of activities, social events, and exploring the reaches of Santiago. On Thursday the 16th, we were introduced to our classroom home for the next 9 days: the Instituto Chileno Norteamericano, or as we simply called it, the instituto. The first day was full of icebreakers and being introduced to teaching and the Chilean education system. Basically, the system here breaks down into three types of schools: fully public schools, semi-private schools, and full private schools.


A couple views of our classroom at the instituto.
Friday brought some adventures around Santiago. We all got our first taste of TranSantiago, the public transportation system that consists of multiple-line metro system and a gazillion buses. Patrick had given me a Bip! Card, which works just like a Charlie card (for those familiar with the Boston T system). The Bip! Card is so named because of the beep sound it makes when tapped – clever, no? However, it became my best friend for the next couple weeks. I really enjoy public transportation – whether this comes from my visits to Boston, commuting at Penn State using the bus, or utilizing TranSantiago, I don’t know. It’s cheap, gets you where you need to be, and provides a lot of interesting people watching.

Anyways, we took the wonderful metro out to the Providencia and Las Condes communes to visit the American Embassy. We weren’t allowed to take any technological devices inside – the place is a freaking fortress. We met with several embassy members, including the second-in-command (the actual ambassador was somewhere else that day) – not to mention their own contingent of half a dozen or so Marines that guard the overall operations.. The embassy members talked mostly about safety and getting registered with them so that just in case a volcano erupts or there’s an earthquake, they know where the Americans are. Aw, my country cares so much about me!


A view of the embassy from above - from the embassy website.
Friday night was just hanging around and consuming more wine. Wine was only $2 - $6 a bottle – my favorite was 1790 pesos, I believe, which is roughly 3 dollars. If I counted right, in my 16 days in Santiago, I consumed the equivalent of at least seven bottles of red wine. Love it.


Laura, Laetitia, and Karyn with the great spaghetti dinner we made.
Saturday was… more class? No rest for us WorldTeach volunteers! The day went as usual, learning learning learning, until it was broken up by three current WorldTeach volunteers coming in for a panel discussion: Jake, Ryan, and Kelly. They had a lot of wisdom to offer, and generally helped us shed some fears on our upcoming four months of teaching. Afterwards, we all scattered for dinner only to meet up again for drinks at a bar called El Diablito (the little devil). The current volunteers, plus a couple who had just finished their stints, joined the entire group in the downstairs room. Anyone who tried coming down took one look at us – too many gringos! – and high-tailed it back upstairs.


A bunch of the WorldTeach crew at the Diablito.
Sunday was a more sobering event. Our group was introduced to Andres, who had been a political prisoner during the Pinochet reign. A brief breakdown of recent Chilean history included the shooting/suicide of its socialist president, Allende, in 1973, followed by the dictatorial takeover by Augusto Pinochet. There followed several years of human rights violations, including thousands from the political opposition – El Mir – being captured, tortured, or disappeared. Despite the dead – known and unknown – during his dictatorship, the economy was bolstered and is now the strongest in Latin America. It seems that most of the country is still bitter towards Pinochet, depending upon who you ask, but there are some that do recognize the things he did for the economy.

Our first visit was just a block down the street from our hostel, at Londres 38. Earlier one night I had seen a demonstration outside of this building, and now understood why. An untold number of men and women were detained, tortured, and executed here. Many of their names were emblazoned on marble bricks set into the sidewalk, including their political party and age. A lot of them were only 20, 21, 22 years old at their time of death. To think, this place I slept only a block away from had 3 decades earlier been the site of unimaginable horror. Had I been this age and in Chile at that time, I could have been one of the thousands disappeared.


Andres talking to our group outside of Londres 38.
We then made our way to the cemetery, a sprawling plot of land that houses countless tombs and mausoleums. Some of the mausoleums were absolutely gorgeous works of architecture.


An example of the intricate tombs, and the grave of Violeta Parra, a famous Chilean singer.
However, our main point of interested was the wall dedicated to the victims of Pinochet’s regime, Allende’s grave, and the mausoleum reserved for bodies they are still finding and identifying. It was sobering, to say the least.


A view of the mural with the names of the executed and disappeared.
The next major stop was at Villa Grimaldi, a major place of detention and execution during 1974-1978. Several prominent Chileans had been tortured there, including our guide, Andres and the current president, Michele Bachelet. Andres showed us the various trappings that were still standing so that people could see what the victims suffered. There were cells only a meter by a meter used to house six people at a time, a wooden tower that kept people in cubbyholes on each floor… we were told what was done to the prisoners, and it does not bear repeating. At that point, I fell into a horrible mood because I could not possibly comprehend what would make one human being do that to another. I quietly grieved for all of those raped and beaten at that detention center.


A view of the grounds of Villa Grimaldi. The house where people were tortured has since been torn down.
A few more stops, a quick nap on the bus, and we were given the afternoon off. It didn’t seem like anyone was doing much of anything, and I wanted to take advantage of the fact that all the city museums are free on Sundays. So, I met up with Patrick and we took in a very interesting exhibit at the Museum of Visual Arts (read: modern art). The showcased artist, Valentina Cruz, had a very distinct style reminiscent of M.C. Escher using a lot of charcoal, minimal color, and unique crosshatching and pointillism. The majority of her work was from the 70’s and really reflected the political turmoil, executions, and Big Brother-esque feelings of the latter part of that decade.

Afterwards, we wandered around the Parque Forestral and Plaza Italia before heading into the Providencia and Las Condes communes. We found a nice Italian pizza kitchen to eat at, and pleasantly discovered their two for one deal. Of course, the kind of pizza I picked was better. Then it was off to an upscale mall that had a Showcase Cinemas in it. I was happy because they had the movies in English with Spanish subtitles, so we chose Harry Potter. It was pretty good – I loved the special effects – and it helped me learn some Spanish vocabulary. After that late showing, my weekend officially ended.

Over 5000 Miles Later...

It's hard to remember back to my first days here in Chile - it's only been three weeks, but the amount I've seen, learned, and done makes it feel like three months. Where has all that time gone?

To start: I flew from Pittsburgh to Atlanta, and was meeting the majority of people around 9 that night for our flight to Santiago at 10:05. First I met Meghan and Rory, two west coasters... and then the group arrived from Miami, and it was insanity. Too many people and names to remember at once. On the plane, I took solace in the back (with two seats to myself) and spoke to a guy from Iran who was a political science professor at BU, and had a one day lecture/meeting in Chile.

After an awkward sleep during the 9 hour flight, the group of us whizzed through customs and got our obligatory stamps (the highlight of my morning, sad to say. The clomp of a stamp in a passport is oddly exciting for me). We piled our massive amounts of luggage into two vans and met our two bacán (in español: cool) field directors, Thomas and Meghan. They took us to our hostel, Hotel Plaza Londres, which turned out to be an absolute haven for us - despite being freezing cold all the time. We had a quick meeting before being told to scram for a couple hours.


The front of Hotel Plaza Londres and the street of Londres.
I decided to wait around for Patrick - formerly known as my boyfriend - and have him show me some of Santiago because he had already been there for a month. While waiting, I was treated to a riot just a block down the street from my hostel. Patrick met me while I was watching this, and we got to see multiple carabineros (in español: police, specifically the Chilean police) come to the scene. First it was some on foot, then a couple cars, then an armored van with a mounted water cannon, and then more with shields. We never found out what was happening, but we did see some guy without a shirt who was bleeding profusely get handcuffed and dragged away.

After that excitement, Patrick took me up the Cerro Santa Lucia. The view from up there was magnificent, as you can see from the panorama in my previous post. The hill itself was pretty nice too, with several statues of important historical Chileans, along with the remainders of a fort and other architecture.


The entrance to Cerro Santa Lucia from O'Higgins, and a look at Santiago.
Afterwards, I went back to the hostel for food and meetings, a chance to get to know everyone a little bit better. We went over quite a few logistics, like insurance and who to call when (carabineros, clinicas, and bomberos - police, doctors, and firemen). Then followed more relaxing and meeting up with Patrick again, before experiencing just how cold it is at night in Plaza Londres. Our room was usually colder than it was outside, and outside temperatures ranged from low 30's at night to maybe 50's during the day, to give you an idea. For the record, basically no one in Chile has central heating... so unless you have a wood stove or a space heater, the temperature inside is the same as the temperature outside. I faced that cruel reality when going to bed.

And, well... that was my first day. More flashbacks later!