A weekend FULL of Santiago-an Adventures!

So my first full weekend in Santiago seems to have flown by full of all sorts of adventures around this huge, crazy city that I still have seen hardly any of, regardless of days of exploring. I'm starting to get the hang of things such as the transportation system and such which makes everything feel a lot more secure and routine.

As I said before, this weekend was full of exploring Santiago. Saturday I met a big group of EAP kids outside a metro station near Santiago Centro and we walked through Bellavista and up the very hot and very steep path to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, a very large hill in the middle of the city with a statue of the Virgin Mary on the top. The view from the top was pretty incredible! We could see Santiago going on for miles and miles, all the way up the the mountains that surround it. We took a lot of pictures, and also went took a look inside the chapel at the top of the hill as well.

While we were up on the top, we ate lunch at a restaurant with a great view of the city that was able to seat the rather large group we had. It was really funny because for a lot of us yesterday was the about 2 week mark for being away from the US, and when we looked at the menu and saw hamberguesa queso con papas fritas we realized we had hit a point of missing good old burgers and went for it. It was no in-n-out burger, but it was definitely refreshing at the top of the hill.

We then headed down the mountain through the Parque Metropolitano that engulfs the whole hill and is massive and really pretty! The trail down took a while, but was really gorgeous! We found a lot of really neat things throughout the park, including a GIANT public pool that costs about $10 to enter and we will definitely be returning to someday soon! I made a poor shoe decision yesterday morning and now have massive blisters from walking up in my tennis shoes and sore calves from walking down in my flip flops because of the blisters, but it was definitely worth it!

Once we got down the mountain, we all ventured over for some ice cream in Providencia. Chileans LOVE ice cream! They eat it pretty much every afternoon; a practice I am quickly growing to love. I then returned home to shower and eat before venturing out for my first experience with Chilean night-life!

We went to Bellavista last night and really just hung out and had fun talking. We didn't end up going to a discotheque or anything, but it was really fun! I think Mr. Cab Driver may have ripped us off on the way home, but it wasn't too bad if he did and we learned our lesson. I got home around 2AM, meaning basically we didn't really even experience Chilean night-life since it is notorious for STARTING at 2AM. But we still had a blast and sometime we will get the full experience, I have no doubt.

Today (Sunday) I slept in until around 10, ate breakfast, and the ventured with 4 friends to one of the strangest Chilean traditions I have witnessed yet. I don't even fully understand it, so sorry if my explanation fails. Basically, we went to watch this "muñeca gigante" or giant doll walk down the street with her tío, Escafandra. Here's what we didn't know, all of Santiago went too! No joke, I have never, EVER, EVER, been someplace that crowded. And we couldn't really see much of anything since all of the little kids were on their parents shoulders also. BUT, I'm really glad we went and I did get some pictures. It's one of those very foreign traditions and experiences I definitely would have regretted missing!

After fighting, almost literally, our way out of the crowd and back onto the metro, we ventured out to a very nice mall (where I had gone once previously at night with my Mom when she was here) to eat some lunch and shop a bit for our Patagonia trip. We ate at a very cool, nice restaurant called Tanta and I had a delicious sandwich with, you guessed it, palta! Palta=avocado, and my obsession with it has multiplied exponentially as of late. I also found a pack cover for my backpacking backpack and a pair of awesome trekking pants for Patagonia!

Now I'm just chilling at home. I have yet to see my host mom at all today, but I'm sure she'll show up soon! I did my homework, went for a run, was convinced to register to run the Santiago Half Marathon April 11th (which I have yet to actually register for, but am definitely going to), and will soon eat dinner and finish my homework. Our class is from 9-1 this week which means early bed time because of early wake up, but it'll be nice to have the afternoons free to explore (some of said exploring is preplanned this week by our program ie. a museum and a vineyard).

So things are settling in, a routine is coming to exist, I'm starting to feel more comfortable, and I'm REALLY excited for my trip in 2 weeks! Things are going well!