Week 8!

Well guys, since this was my last week in Chile, I suppose this is going to be my last post.  I can't very well be silly in Chile in Missouri, now can I?

Since Shea was there for just this week, we tried to get up to something every day.  Let's take a look...

Monday, Jan 7

On Monday I decided it was time to finish up my present shopping, so Shea and I met up with Rosie and headed to Santa Lucia to a big market that they've got there. Unfortunately I can't divulge what I got as most people haven't actually received their presents yet, but I did a great job and got something for about 7 people! Yes, this was after I had already gotten presents for the girls the other week. I have a big family!

That evening we looked up a vegetarian restaurant on Lonely Planet, but when we tried to find it, it was a major fail. So, we just had dinner at this Italian place instead. I had spaghetti with capers, olives, and supposedly anchovies. 

I couldn't actually taste the anchovies.  What a shame, since that was pretty much why I had chosen that dish. Oh well, it was delicious anyway. To drink, a kir royale. It's some kind of berry liqueur mixed with...champagne? Delicious and sparkly!

Tuesday, Jan 8

On Tuesday we decided to check out a couple of museums. First, we headed to the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende.  

Salvador Allende was the leader of Chile before a military coup overthrew him and installed dictator Pinochet. I guess the museum is dedicated to him. It had a lot of abstract artwork:

Also, some censored CIA documents...

This was actually really cool.  The black circles are speakers, and the color of the light at the bottom would change.  It was broadcasting in Spanish though, so not sure what it said.

Also, Allende's registration with the socialist party:

Afterwards, we headed over to the Museo de Artes Visuales, which also hosts the Museo Arqueologico de Santiago, and saw some interesting stuff...

Yeup, that's art.  Visually.

Here are some samples from the archaeological museum.  Mapuche jewelry, textiles, statues, and hats.

That evening we met up with Rosie and Andres to go to dinner and a “tango show,” that I had found on the internet. Turns out, it wasn't a dance show, but a tango music show. Still nice, but Rosie and I were really hoping to see some dancing.

The woman said that they don't even make that little accordion instrument anymore.  Neat.

I got some fish in a chardonnay sauce.

I think this may have been the first time I was disappointed with the food—the fish was so dry I didn't even finish eating it because I was tired of chewing so much! Oh well, can't win all the time.

Wednesday, Jan 9

On Wednesday we managed to do some actual physical activity.  I found a place to hike on the internet, took down the directions, and we headed out.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy, right?  Not so much...

The directions weren't entirely clear on which bus stop we needed to go to, so we just kind of guessed.  It was the wrong one.  We wandered around a bit, asked some gardeners where the park was, but it was difficult since neither of us *really* speaks Spanish, although Shea's is better than mine.  We went the way the gardeners said to go...and ended at a dead end.  We went back to the previous bus stop because we thought maybe that was where we should have gotten off, but quickly changed our minds once we got there. Finally, we decided that we hadn't ridden the bus far enough, and followed the way it had continued going.  This turned out to be the right answer.  Then we had to go through the Catholic University campus and the Equestrian Club, way back far away from the road and with no signs or anything.  Finally, we found the park...and discovered that the trail we had wanted to take was actually in another, far-off area of the same park, but that we couldn't get there from where we were.  Absolutely ridiculous.  So, we just picked a new trail and started off on what felt like our second hike of the day by that time.  We decided to head to the Monolito...

I turned out to be pretty grateful that we hadn't found that other trail in the end.  It was HOT on Wednesday.  If I recall correctly, I think it got up to in the 90's (over 32C for my international friends).  The trail we had originally chosen was supposed to be 3 hours up and 3 hours down at the minimum.  The one we ended up taking was about 3 hours round-trip.  I don't think we would have had enough water for the longer trail!  Anyway, check out the scenery:

Check out all those cacti!  We actually weren't very close to them--my camera's got a good zoom.

Finally reached the monolith:

Don't act like you're not impressed.

And a nice picnic lunch

With apple Gatorade!

After that we were hot, sweaty, and dirty, so we headed back to the apartment for some much-needed showers and spent the afternoon chilling and watching movies.  

That evening we went to the oft-recommended Liguria for dinner.  I had a big ol' bowl of mushrooms:

It was pretty delicious, since I love mushrooms, but I was glad that they also bring bread.  I mean, a whole dinner of just mushrooms?  Come on...

Thursday, Jan 10

On Thursday we got to do one of the big things I had been wanting to do my whole time in Chile--wine tasting!  We bought a Turistik tour and headed out to Concha y Toro for the afternoon.  

Here is the house where the owner/creator/whatever used to stay when he was there:

It has something ridiculous like 22 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms, if I remember correctly.  We also got to see the vineyards

An old distillery

And the cellars

Here is the entrance to the legendary Casillero del Diablo.  

Legend has it that the Concha y Toro cellars are cursed by the devil and that anybody who tried to steal any wine from them was marked for death...or the guy made that up to deter theft.  Either way, it was pretty cool.  This part of the cellar in the furthest down and doesn't have a refrigeration system, just the coolness of the Earth.  It smelled funny.  If you want to see a ridiculous movie trailer based on the legend, check this out (WARNING: it looks kind of stupid): http://casillerodeldiablo.com/minisitios/trailer/

And, of course, we got to do some wine tasting:

Bonus: they let us keep the glass!  Made it all the way home without breaking!

Friday, Jan 11

Believe it or not, we decided that we actually needed to buy MORE presents, so after we took our sweet time sleeping in, we headed back over to the market at Santa Lucia.  Shea got some alpaca socks for his dad, and I got...haha, just kidding!  It's still a secret!

We met up with Libby and Rosie and went to a Peruvian place for dinner, so Shea could try a good Pisco sour.  I got a seafood medley for dinner:

Then we went to the river to watch the international jazz festival without paying for tickets.  Don't worry, we weren't the only ones.

Saturday, Jan 12

My last day in Chile!  Had a fruit and toast breakfast with Rosie and Libby, then spent the day packing before meeting back up with Rosie for lunch.  Then she and Andres were kind enough to drive us to the airport, and that was that!

After a 9 hour flight to Miami, a 3 hour flight to Dallas, and finally a 1.5 hour flight to Kansas City, I was exhausted and happy to stagger off the plane and into the arms of a sweet boyfriend who was holding these

I win.