Parinacota Hotel Las Condes

... America for five months, but I couldn't feel it in my gut. That is, not until I saw the sun rise over the Cordillera, a picturesque spread of mountains. Once I caught sight of that, my gut was in the game. I felt the power of what I was about to do. It was exhilarating.

 That first day in Santiago I met a few of the students in our HUGE study abroad group. Each person I've met, at least thus far, certainly has some character. It's fascinating how friendships can be built ...

Technically I will be on a plane to Santiago, Chile today. Holy ****. When did that happen? How did it become Wednesday, July 22, 2009 already??? 

 Anytime someone has previously asked me if I was excited, nervous, or any of the other typical pre-travel emotions, I would say, "eh, I still have plenty of time". Well, according to the calendar, that time is gone. I'm leaving today. All spanish studying I had thought I would do ...

... br>After 36 hours and most probably the development of severe deep vein thombosis we arrived back in Chile. Puerto Montt was a typically pleasant fast-growing Latin American city with a great buzzing atmosphere. Here I experienced the Chilean institute, the immense 'Completa' ...this is a hotdog filled with fresh tomatoes, lapped with guacamole, and topped with lots of sauce! Amazing! Mr Kosher Goldstein was very displeased with my new ...

... bruises from the aggression of the other kids. My biggest fear is that he is going to learn these behviors, and that he will learn aggression is an acceptable way of dealing with frustration and anger. His rough start to life will confront him at some point in the future when he is older, and I hope to God that he doesn't use aggression to deal with his problems then. As vital as a family life is for any of ...

... enjoying reliving a stage in my youth, I headed to the bar to find a menu for food and ask for a beer for Jamie and a glass of wine for me. Apparently though a glass of wine is not something you can have in a bar, you can only have wine by the litre...no, I didn´t order the litre instead (come on, I´m not that bad!!). but instead we settled for sharing a jug of cocktail which contained wine. Other than the fact that the cocktail was wine based however, we had no idea ...

... He was warm, funny, a little quirky, and had a LOVELY girlfriend named Pilar. We went out for a late lunch, had tons of laughs, and I felt damn good about how much my Spanish was rolling. Luckily, none of us had much sleep from the previous night, so we returned to Francisco´s great apartment and all took a good siesta. His couch was way comfy, I might add. By ten o´clock we were out on the town which was buzzing with busy cafes and people ...

Santiago gets a bad rap from travelers for lacking character. I'd have to agree. Also, seems like you can feel a little fascist history as you look around. The avenues are very broad, and the big concrete 60's era office and apartment buildings are too large and blocky. You can almost see slums ...

... at the hotel, but left because she couldn´t get in the room, as we had forgotten to leave our room keys at the front desk. She couldn´t have gone far, we thought, since it appeared that she had taken her luggage with her. It turned out that the airline had lost her luggage - what a ****** way to start a vacation! I took a little siesta until Monica finally returned, and we were off to sightsee ...

... it by pointing to me and saying 'I won't but my wife will'! One of the dancers did a bit of a river dance with a stick and then asked men to come and have a go. At home generally, I think this would be a tough task to get participants but the men were gagged for a go. A local participant translated everything for Morgan, so he had some understanding of what he had to do, he even went and got Morgan a glass of wine for some extra dutch courage and then they both attempted the dance ...

So, next day we were up at 7am to get the bus to Santiago. A 24hour one, might I add. Not a patch on the 4 day bus I got across Canada but still. It was long. We entertained ourslves though even though they showed the movie 27 Dresses 4 times with Spanish subtitles and also dubbed in Spanish, the Scorpion King twice and some **** Steven Segal movie. Same deal. All en espańol. Feckers. Listened to my iPod. Annoyed Fiona for my own entertainment and ate a ridiculous amount of ...