Here's DEET in your eye...& other tales of Week 1

  Santiago, Chile
Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Light packs a triumph!
Did not anticipate this,
Forty Two Degrees

And we're off!

WE MADE IT!  The only real hiccup in our travels occurred when Eli went to smell the bottle of odorless Deet bug repellent and it squirted him in the eye. 15 minutes of emergency eye flushing later, we were on our way to the airport, eyeball red but intact, Lasik unaffected.  Landed in Santiago Thursday Sept 4, with a few belongings on our backs and groggy smiles on our faces.  Breezed through customs and out into the *frigid* Chilean air.  By day 2 we had visited "Fashion's Park" to buy a very attractive $6 fleece for Eli and a less attractive sweatshirt for Bron, slightly throwing our light packing plan off kilter (although it's possible we won't be taking these layers off until Peru).

First impressions?

Beautiful Santiago (just about a third of it)

Reminds us both of Spain, with plazas and busy shopping centers, Cathedrals and lots of teenagers making out in parks.  Between the two of us we can both understand and express about 90% of what we need.  We spent one night in a hip and trendy upscale hostel (it had an available private room, where we slept 16 of our first 24 hours, after our 15 hours of travel).  We are now bunking in a 10 person dorm in a hostel overlooking the Plaza de Armas, a lovely palm tree filled courtyard complete with artesans, pidgeons, a spiderman impersonator (evil darkside spidey), and a ton of people playing chess.

Eli on top of San Cristobal

We've wandered around a lot to get a feel for the city and have seen some good sites.  One highlight was scaling  San Cristobal hill (by funicular, a very sketchy trolley which ascends the hill at a 60 degree angle) to get a view of the GRAND expanse of this enormous city of around 6 million people.  Rising above it all are the rather impressive Andes, whose snowy peaks float eerily above the horizon (at least that's Eli's description heehee).

Bistec a lo Pobre

Chile is not famous for its cuisine.  However, two of the get-anywhere dishes are "(insert name of meat here) a lo pobre" and churrascos.  The former is a pile of french fries, topped with meat and grilled onions, then topped with a fried egg. Bron had it for 2 of her first 4 meals, and might be over it now.  Churrascos are huge, round sandwiches covered in guac.  Awesome. Also, Escudo, the national beer, and Pisco Sours, the national cocktail, are both pretty tasty.

Chilean Nat'l Ultimate Frisbee Team Pyramid!

Another highlight was playing ultimate frisbee yesterday with a group of Americans and Chileans whom we met through Eli's friend Patrick (from Colorado/Mazatlan) who is working as a teacher down here.  We spent 4 hours running around on this huge field, with the Andes on one side, a horse corral on the other, all the while watching the sun set over Santiago behind us. Pretty wild. 

The only real lowlight has been a surprising amount of stray dogs throughout the city, which is mostly only a lowlight for Eli who spent his childhood delivering newspapers.  To be honest, they really haven't bothered us at all (except Eli, who is "haunted by their vacant stares").  Anyway, so far so good in the Southern Hemisphere. Wednesday we set off for Mendoza (read: wine country) for a long weekend sidetrip to Argentina.  Until then, take care, we miss you, and please look after your dogs, for Eli's sake.

Santa Lucia Hilll

There is some awesome graffiti here

Breakfast overlooking the Plaza de Armas

Eli wants to buy this fixer upper (the little one)

First round of Pisco Sours!

Third round of Pisco Sours!

See anything interesting on the menu?

Ultimate Frisbee

That's Eli in the red shirt