From May 7 - May 12 I went on a trip to Santiago for work. Don't be confused by the flags, it was Chile. I'm not sure why they flew Brazilian, Canadian, and Chinese (not in this picture) flags beside the Marriott and Chilean flags at the hotel. My best guesses are there were dignitaries from those countries staying at the hotel or those are the countries they were feeling most friendly toward that day.
I LOVE traveling, especially when I don't have to pay a dime! The flights down and back were during the night but I got was able to get a decent night sleep because I get to fly business class for international work travel (one thing I would never do on my own so I am grateful for every minute of it).
Santiago is a very modern city with a lot of condo living, pollution, and small cars. The driving is a little crazy with very narrow lanes and very defensive drivers, but there does not seem to be any road rage or honking. One day my taxi driver was competing with a bus and another car for the right to this one lane...it was hilarious. I was a little disappointed by the smog because I really wanted to see the Andes. You can almost make them out in the background.
Across the street from the office was this earthquake proof more-resistant building. As I am no architectural engineer, I can't explain how it works but it looked neat. The bottom was very narrow and it got wider as it went up. (Mostly I included two pictures if the building for the benefit of a certain B.R. in Florida who loves concrete.)
The food in Chile was pretty good. My favorite item was Chirimoya, it is a juice. I am not a juice drinker regularly but this was to die for! Chirimoya is a fruit down in South America; David says it is really good and it must be because it makes delicious juice. I liken it to pear juice because it is white and has the same grittyness, but it is sweeter. The empanadas were also good; they are like small hot pockets with either cheese or meat in them. They also serve bread at every meal with butter and picante (salsa). It seemed weird at first but it is really good. One thing I did not like was albacore pot pie. It was a fishy, salty, burnt mess and I mostly just pushed it around my plate so it looked like I ate some. Dinner in Chile doesn't start until at least 8 or 8:30. One night we went to dinner at 7:00 and the restaurant was deserted but when we left at 10:30 it was jam-packed. I guess they must not go to be until at least midnight on a regular basis.
On Friday we worked until 2 and then took a late lunch to a Peruvian restaurant, El Otto Sitio. It is in the left middle of the picture.
Peruvian food is so good! They had a yellow pepper dip for the bread (instead of picante) that was a little spicy but very tasty. I got a chicken stew and it was awesome. I highly recommend Peruvian food.
On Saturday our flight wasn't until 8:30 pm so we did some sight seeing. Luckily one of my co-workers speaks fluent Spanish so we were able to get around the city without getting lost. First we rode the subway to the city center. This building is called something like the President's Mansion.
In the city center there were some beautiful old buildings,
and a really pretty cathedral.
Right outside the cathedral was a city park, the no-grass kind. People were selling all sorts of crafts, music was playing, and there were hundreds of pigeons. Some people were letting them land on their heads, gross.
After the city center we went over to this hill in the middle of the city. (There is this 8 or 10 km tunnel under the hill, it was an extremely long tunnel). You can ride a tram to the top or stop half-way up at a zoo.
There were a lot of trees around the track so it blocked the view on the way up but from the top you could see most of the city. At least I anticipate you could see most of the city on a not-so-smoggy day. Once again, my hopes to see the Andes from the top of the hill were ruined. I'm hoping that it won't be so smoggy in July when I go again so I can actually see the Andes, but I'm not holding my breath.
