Dad in Chile Part 1: Santiago, Cajón de Maipo, and Santiago

Thursday afternoon after regurgitating all the knowledge I had crammed into my brain over the previous 3 days about globalization, census's, and so much more on to 6 pieces of paper on 2 different tests, I nearly skipped off campus towards the metro feeling perhaps the most excited I ever have in my life. Not only had I just finished the two tests that had been looming in he future for quite some time, but I was enroute to see my Dad who I had not seen for over 3 months! Needless to say, the hour long metro trip was pretty painful, so close but so far. When I got to the hotel, I told the receptionist I was there to meet my Dad and she told me he had stepped out for a bit. Knowing that he knew we were meeting at 1:30, I knew he'd be back soon so I just took a seat on the lobby couch to wait. Sure enough, after less than a minute I saw him through the glass lobby door on the other side of the street. I sprung off the couch, ran out the door, ran across the street, and ran into my Dad's hugging arms to give/receive one the greatest hugs ever while I tried to hold back tears of joy and love. I had told myself I wouldn't cry, but quickly gave up on that. Needless to say, I was inexplicable happy to be embracing someone I love and had missed so much!

Ever since then, we've been adventuring and sightseeing. Commence recap now.

Thursday:

Thursday was a pretty relaxed day after our reunion since he was obviously exhausted from the flight and I had another class late in the afternoon and had yet to pack to move into his hotel for the week. We went to lunch at a very popular Chilean restaurant called Schoppdog and both got Completos, a very common Chilean food (basically a hot dog with lots of stuff on top). Well, he was interested to Chilean food right since it was not exactly delicious, haha, but don't worry, our eating has improved. Afterwards, we wandered around Providencia before he returned to his hotel and I went to class. After my class we met outside the metro stop for my apartment which I had told him how to get to and gotten him a metro bip crad and headed to my apartment for me to pack. We finished the day by eating some pasta at my apartment and of course feeding my avocado loving dad Chilean palta, I packed, and then we went to our hotel and crashed for the night, both exhausted from travel/studying.

Friday:

We Friday sightseeing and hanging out aorund Santiago. After a much needed morning of sleeping in, I showed my Dad Campus Oriente of La Católica, where I had language classes in January/February and where the EAP campus is since I also had to go there to pick up an incredible package of goodies from my parents. By goodies, I mean legitimate goodies (swedish fish, sour patch, postcard from Jason, etc) and new found cherished items such a pillowcases, tums, advil, cetaphil lotion, etc. Then we headed to the center of the city and saw Plaza de Armas, attempted to go to the National History Museum but it was closed due to earthquake damages, ate lunch in Bellas Artes (another barrio of Santiago), walked through Parque Forestal (big park along the river in the city) back to the metro, returned to the hotel, and tackled our plans for the weekend to the Andes (Cajón de Maipo and Valparaiso). After addressing almost every possible way of getting to Cajón de Maipo, we finally made reservations for the "Maipo Valley Wine Tour" involving private transportation transfer to a winery tour, hiking, lunch, and ziplining in the Andean canyon, although ultimately we ended up horseback riding in place of the winery. That evening, we went to Parque Arauco (very nice mall/dinner location/movie theater) and bought me new hiking boots to replace my Patagonia battled boots, ate a delicious pasta dinner at Pasta Basta with a live Chilean Beatles cover band in the background that was actually not half bad and wore wigs, and then saw Iron Man 2 (subtitled, spoken in English). Overall, a very successful day. :)

Saturday:

My dad being who he is, there was no way we were not getting him to the Andes somehow while he was down here. Our transfer service for our Maipo Valley Wine Tour picked us up bright and early and we headed out of the city into the foothills to one of Chile's most renowned wineries, Concha y Toro. Unfortunately when we arrived, the winery was closed and our driver just told us "Vamos a Cascada ahora y vemos", meaning we'll just keep going to Cascada de las Animas (the resort/nature reserve we had made this tour reservation through) and we'll see what happens when we get there. While my Dad was a little sketch out by this, I just attributed it to classic Chile having gotten used to things like this and figrued things would be sorted out when we got there. Sure enough, within 10 minutes Cascada had called us and told us we could replace the failed winery tour (which happened to be because it was in fact Labor Day, a National Holiday, and thus the winery as well as pretty much everything in Santiago as we would later discover was closed) we could either horseback ride for 2 hours, raft, or go for a longer hike. We opted for the horsies. So, we started our beautiful day of adventuring in the Andes with a very steep and beautiful horseback ride to a lookout with a crazy guide who spoke no English at all, and all I ever heard him saw was "Vamos Vamos" to the horses, not us, while smoking a cigarette and talking on his cell phone while riding up an Andean cliff. That and play with a taranchula with his horse's whip. Crazy old man. But a beautiful and incredible ride, especially since it is fall and all of the leaves are multi-colored and gorgeous! Dad definitely had a lazy horse, which at times was quite entertaining with our very impatient caballero guide. After the horses, we ate lunch at Cascada's riverside restaurant with a tree growing in the middle of it and then set out on a brief little hike to two different waterfalls back in a small canyon with a guide (the only way you were allowed to do the hike). After the hike, we did a zip-line across the river and back before heading back (absolutely exhausted) to Santiago. That evening, after showering from our day of horses and dirt, we discovered almost everything but Pizza Hut was closed so we got a small pizza to go and brought it back to the hotel where we relaxed, updated blogs/journals, and crashed early after an active, beautiful, and wonderful day in the Andes.

Sunday:

Though the tentative original plan had been to head to Valpo thus afternoon for the evening and night, we ended up pushing that plan back to tomorrow evening since it seems the weather will be much nicer for heading to the coast than it would have been today. So, after making a reservation for Vaparaiso tomorrow night, we headed out to do some more Santiago sightseeing today. We metro-ed into the center of the city again and walked to the top of Cerro Santa Lucia for some great panoramic views of the city as the clouds started to lift. Afterward, we walked over through Plaza de Armas again to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolumbino (Chilean Museum of Precolumbian Art) and wandered the museum for a while before grabbing some Bravissimo, the most popular Chilean ice cream joint. After that, we walked over to see La Moneda (the presidential palace) and the plazas around it. Then, after realizing it was probably the only time we'd actually be able to see them, we headed down to the La Moneda culture center that currently had a museum on China with part of the Terocata Army there! It was so cool to see some of the actual soldiers of that incredible archeological discovery! In my dad's words, "I never expected to see this in Chile!". But hey, the opportunity presented and we went for it! Great decision. Then, we headed back to my apartment to grab some of the things (gifts) I'll be sending home with my Dad and then headed back to the hotel. I google chatted for a little while with my friend Karen, who is currently teaching English in Ecuador but will be moving to Chile in June and I will be meeting up with in about a month, which is incredibly exciting! The thought of seeing a good friend from the US is exactly what I need to push through these 2 months I have left! So excited! She will be in Santiago for a little while so I will see her then, and then hopefully we will get to travel a bit together as well! After this, I took my Dad to the California Cantina. He was dying to see what Santiago Mexican food was like and ultimately, I think he was impressed. He agreed that walking into that restaurant is like walking into a little pocket of California, all the way down here in Santiago. Tonight, our waitress even had friends that went to Poly! Now we're just relaxing and getting ready for our quick trip to the coast tomorrow!

I'll update more on my adventures with my Dad as they come, although I refuse to believe it's already Sunday and dread Wednesday evening. It's wonderful having him here. :)