Santiago, Chile

2.5 days in Santiago and I feel like I've been here for a week. It's the first place I've been to since my 2 day stint in BA that was a city and not a town with one main street.  We got in early Easter Sunday after an overnight bus from Pucon. I'm not going to rehash the events of my last day in Pucon because they involved monsoons, mud, a ruined bike ride and the closure of all laundry places, therefore resulting in the loss of my one warm semi clean article of clothing.
Everything was great once we got to Santiago though. We had breakfasts #2 and 3, and were off. I´ve learned that if I eat as much of the bad bread and jelly in the morning, I save $ on food for the rest of the day. I am still way over budget for month 1, so for the last few days I´ve been trying to be extra careful!

We climbed up a hill in Santa Lucia park that had some pretty nice views of the city. We found a market where Kenzie and I found adorable rings. We went to the big church in the Plaza de Armas for Easter Sunday, where I was accosted outside by an old senile Chilean man. We found the food market, which was more of a fish market, and after fainting 5 times from the smell managed to walk around and found sugared dried sweet potatoes - my new favorite snack! We were all then accosted by a squeaking mime, who tried to steal Kenzie´s camera and kissed us so we had white face paint on our faces all day.

Santiago is a big but manageable city. Every street is lined with beautiful trees. There are parks everywhere and statues and fountains - you can spend days just wandering around exploring it.  Day 1 we were exhausted and hung around the hostel, Cassie and I decided the best way to teach ourselves Spanish was by reading children's books. Which conceptually is a smart idea, however the book we found was a tongue twister nursery rhyme, so not a good starting point. We opted for Alvin and the chipmunks with Spanish subtitles instead.
Day 2, we headed to the Santo Domingo market at the end of town. It was a textile, artisinal and jewelry market that also sold chickens and rabbits. Not sure what the birds were for, but the market was a really nice place to walk around. We walked through practically the whole city of Santiago coming home, and I even found a froyo shop that had sweet potato froyo! At least I think it was sweet potato, I can't be too sure. But it was delish. Then we went into the Bella Vista barrio, on a 2 hour walk up the mountain to San Cristobal,

which is the highest point in Santiago. The view from the top is interesting because Santiago is surrounded by mountains, but you can't really see them through all the smog. Luckily there was a cable car to take down because that was way too much walking for one day. On the cable car I learned the word for backpack, mochilla, and was able to tell a girl that I liked her Hannah Montana backpack in Spanish.  Makinng progress!
When we got back we went to a local Chilean bar for terramotes, or earthquakes. These are a traditional Chilean drink of pineapple ice cream, Fernet and white wine. It's probably as strong as a red bull vodka, and tasted a little bit awful but it was fun, and there were accordion players at the bar and the locals befriended our group and it was so much fun! There was the option of getting an aftershock to follow, which is a smaller version of the same drink, but one of them killed us and I definitely couldn't handle any more. We had drunken empanadas (not quite Pizza 33 but it did the trick) and passed out. I was staying in a mixed dorm which for some reason meant I was the only girl again for both nights, so the boys were all out when I got home and noone was able to laugh at me for passing out before 1 am.

On the last morning in Santiago, we went to the Bellas Artes and Pre-Colombian art museums. A famous Chilean poet died yesterday, and his open casket funeral was being held in the museum. It was my first time seeing a dead person, and it was a totally strange experience. We took samples of his poetry and bought a Spanish dictionary to decipher it on the bus rides. Now we're on our way to Valparaiso, a town 1.5 hours from Santiago by the beach. It's warmer than Santiago, an apparently NY hit 70 degrees today, so to avoid getting jealous I have to go to the beach town :) Easter Island is definitely out since I checked into flights and its $1400 to go there! Flights can be $300 if you book in advance which I definitely couldnt, so this will be another day, another trip...