Exploring Santiago...

The next morning we awoke early, changed, paid for our stay, which they accepted US dollars so that was nice, and then ate a lovely breakfast. We also chatted with two Australians who had just gotten into Chile and were travelling around South America.

Our day started in the Plaza de las Armas, which apparently two years earlier had been a really trashy place with prostitutes and the like. Now it is a lovely area, where old men play chess, which I thought was precious, and preachers come out too, which reminded me of the guys who stand in front of Sul Ross.

We went inside the Cathedral in the square, which was beautiful. I love that I have the opportunity to see how my church community works in other parts of the world, and to join them in prayer. Also learned about St. Teresa of the Andes and apparently one of their older priests who was canonized. Noticed that a lot of things had been updated in 2004, which was when the Pope visited. The burial crypt was interesting, and reminded me of Italian churches. There were also beautiful green crosses everywhere. I can understand, seeing the way the Saints area were set up, how people can get the wrong idea about Saints, and when I say people I mean Catholics too.

So then walked to La Moneda, aka their White House, and got pictures with the guards. They were all really friendly, and directed us to the other side of the building, where they were having the Changing of the Guard. This REALLY cracked me up because think of when the Aggie Corp marches into a game, right? Except that the music the band was playing was like High School dorky music. It was hilarious to see these severe men playing this goofy music. Unfortunately, we couldn’t enter the building because there was going to be a protest that day, although no one could tell us about what except that it maybe had to do with college kids? And so the building was closed off. The several guards we talked to were very nice though and pleasant to talk to.

We did go to the Centro Cultural of Santiago, which was quite nice. We first looked into a shop, where I saw a lot of wool, which is quite popular in Chile. I also was asked by a little schoolgirl where I was from. There were lots of school groups in the store, and they eyed me like a rare specimen. Also went down to the space display, where I learned about the galaxy, but more fascinating was learning about space stuff in Chile. With the large open areas, it’s a huge hub for space exploring, and lots of companies pay to put their stuff there. I believe Chile is entitled to 20% of all viewing time though. They’re going to have the world’s largest telescope. Also read about black holes, which was mildly depressing in that they just suck in light. P.s. the guides name, a college student, was Lara, from Brasil. So that was kind of cool. Also interesting to note that English was taught to her from elementary school while Spanish was only presented in high school.

We were then given instructions to Cerro San Cristobal, which proved to be quite faulty. We eventually made it though, after walking FOREVER, and found it adjacent to the hill. You buy a ticket for the acensor, which is basically a really SKETCH traincar type structure that is hoisted up the extremely steep hill. So we made it to the top, which gave us a lovely view of Santiago, the mountains, and the smog. There was lots of smog.

We then climbed a little higher, and reached the statue of La Virgencita. It was a beautiful place, with at least 10 rows of outdoor benches ambling up the hill leading to the statue. There was also a prayer wall, which I happily left a prayer of thanks on, asking her to intercede for us for safety during our travels. It was an intense prayer wall, as some people had brought engraved plaques and stuff. We also stopped by the little chapel, which was absolutely beautiful. I didn’t get any pictures because it didn’t seem appropriate, but the walls had beautiful murals that seemed to be colored on almost. I also got my Chilean rosary from there.

A time crunch then insisted we head down, so we rode down the acensor, taking note that we happened to be in the same car Pope John rode in on a previous visit in ‘87. We walked for a really long time, until we found a taxi going in the right direction. A neat part of our journey, we hopped out of the taxi, grabbed our stuff from the hostel, successfully navigated the subte to our destination, and then showed up at the bus station right as a bus was about to leave for Valpo. We noted which company it was, rushed to them, bought our tickets, and the bus took off before I was actually sitting down. We settled in for the 2 hour journey, and I promptly fell asleep. P.s. the metro in Chile is much bigger, cleaner, and all around better.