The Arrival!

We have been in Chile for only three days and it feels like we've been here forever!





We arrived in Santiago Thursday morning around 9am. Our flight was very nice and we got to sit next each other. We pretty much passed out after attempting to watch some horrible movie. We landed in Santiago with open eyes and an eagerness to explore! We were staying in Hotel Luz Azul off the Los Heroes metro stop. Easy to get to and really great staff! We checked in and left right away to start exploring. With little idea where to go, we looked at two lists I had from friends (Aubrey and Melissa) and chose one to start with - Cerro San Lucia. We hike up to the top for a great view of the city (although it's no SF or Firenze skyline). We wandered around the entire city that day, eager to make the most of our first day. We made it to Plaza de Armas, La Vega Central (a giant and amazing fruit market), Mercado Central (a huge fish market where we had lunch and our first taste of Pisco Sour - the national Chilean ¨booze¨ as Melissa explained), and ended at Cerro San Cristobal. Aubrey wrote that we should climb Cerro San Cristobal and that it's a ¨bit of hike, but it's worth it¨. What she forgot to mention was that it was the longest hill of my life. Granted, we're pretty sure we entered the wrong way, we seem to have gone the way the cars are meant to enter, so the street was LONG with little to NO incline. It felt like the road to no where and I wanted to turn around around sweating my face off and thinking that the damn road was just going to wind up to nothing! But, we trekked on and finally made it half way (after what felt like 5 hours in the hot sun) to a lift that took us the rest of the way to the top (thank God because even that ride was like 15 mins). It was a great view of the city however and definitely worked my buns into shape! We took the lift back to the bottom and wandered back to the subway to get back to our hostel. On our way we picked up a nice bottle of vino and enjoyed that for a bit before heading to dinner.



Aubrey also suggested going to a restaurant in the Barrio Bellavista called 'Como Agua Para Chocolate', adding that we would not regret it in all caps, so I figured we HAD to go. Aubrey forgot to mention that it would be the best meal of our entire lives and we would leave feeling like we were carrying ten babies because it would be so amazing that we would not want to stop. Well, it was amazing. We each had a Caipiroska and just the bread and this spread was AWESOME. Then we had like a cheese fondue with baby shrimp in it and chips. Finally, we stuffed our faces with fajitas that came with beef, chicken, and shrimp with rice, beans, best guac EVER, and tortillas. We each tried to shove as much as we could in, but left feeling like we should've shoved more in! It was awesome, and thanks Aubrey for the best meal of our lives!



The next morning we headed to the bus station to go to Viña del Mar. We were excited and hoped to head to the beach immediately. We rocked out to ¨Vamos alla Playa¨ on Vale's ipod to prepare ourselves. The bus ride was about two hours and we passed our for a majority of it. When we woke up, we were welcomed by the FOG and coldness of Viña del Mar. We thought maybe we went back to San Francisco. Bummer. No beach today, just overcast and cold. We arrived in our hostel - Hostel Reloj de los Flores - put our stuff down and went out to explore right away. We walked all along the boardwalk and headed up to the main street to catch the bus to Con Con. The buses here are quite amazing - they work like a taxi in the states, meaning you can wave it down wherever the hell you want on the street! There are 'paradas' or stops, but they mean little to absolutely nothing. The driver flashes its lights at you and you either confirm that you want on or you ignore. O, another thing, the drivers are about 40000 times worse than in Italia, meaning that they don't stop or slow down for ANYTHING, not even an elderly woman carrying her grandchild. Trust me, we are not playing around on the streets!

So, we headed to Con Con after a recommendation from a woman at our hostel. Let's just say that Vale and I were expecting people and were quite surprised to find about two people in restaurants and the rest of the 'town' was left to the pelicans. And even the pelicans were boring and did nothing. O well, Con Con actually turned out to be one of our favorite spots thanks to one thing - EMPANADAS. We had a fresh empanada con mariscos y camarones. Heavenly. I was on the hunt for them after Melissa described them as 'sweet juicy seafood heaven' and Im pretty sure there is no other explanation. We hunted for some de jaiba (crab) but didn't find some until dinner that night.

We headed back to Viña to hit up the casino, expecting a great time there. Little did we know, that you have to pay 3.500 pesos just to ENTER. Rip off, so we stood at the balcony in awe of what must've been millionares playing. They have crazy chips here and the dealer for one game controls a giant paddle. It was amazing and we were very intreged. Also, instead of alchohol at the tables, they all drink coffee and maybe a coke or two...crazy people!

We went to a bar/restaurant in the Hotel Viña del Mar (where the casino is) and some drinks and a plate of mixed empanadas. We sat at the bar and chatted it up with the pizza maker and a bartender, both named Sebastian. They suggested a bar to check out later, but I didn't have my ID, so we went to a local bar and had some Escudo and tried to fit in best we could. We were missing low riding jeans and a mullet. O well, next time.