Oh Glorious Sunny Sunday

Today was our first full day without classes or other obligations. YAY! It had been raining for 2 days so we were excited to walk around the city on a clear sunny day. We felt like we had not really seen much of Santiago since we had been spending our time going to class, eating, shopping, walking, preparing for showers, and sleeping most of the time.

Today happened to be the last weekend before kids go back to school from their 2 week winter break. Therefore, there were tons of families out at the parks, museums (some free on Sundays), and restaurants.

Roman, Millie, and I got up before everyone else and left for our adventure in the city. Everyone else had came back at 5am after a night of clubbing. It's not atypical for Chileans to party until 6am on the weekends.

SAN CRISTOBAL
We decided to hike up San Cristobal (tallest mountain in Santiago). I was so glad that Millie decided to go on the hike as I knew she had it in her. Also, Roman was really good about slowing down since I knew he wanted to bolt up that mountain.

As I hiked, I took deep breaths to savor the less polluted air around me.

I was SO HAPPY to get some exercise other than walking and to be
away from city life for a while. (See below- Notice the stray dog sleeping and the cyclist next to me?)

When we got up there, we were graced with awesome views of snow capped mountains and the city. Unfortunately, we could still see a layer of smog in some areas. I was happy to see that so many Chileans biked up the mountain (with some nice gear I might add... Trek, Cannodale, Shimano...) as we rarely saw cyclists in the city (possibly because it's a bit dangerous).
San Cristobal statue in the background. This was such a peaceful summit with music playing. The stadium seats are for religious masses that are held outdoors once in a while.


There were several vendors on San Cristobol. We shared a Mote which was a sweet tea with peaches and wheat. YUMMY!




PABLO NERUDA
Next, we went to one of Pablo Neruda's homes (La Cascona) in Bellavista.

Even though I didn't know who Pablo Neruda was until I got to Chile, I LOVED our tour. Pablo Neruda was a Chilean diplomat for Argentina and then for Chile (?). He wrote and published his first book of poems when he was 18(?). He received a Nobel Prize for his poetry. His favorite author was Arthur Miller and improved his English after Arthur Miller offered him English lessons. Pablo was somewhat a womanizer as he had built this home for his 3rd wife, who was his lover during the time he was still married to his 2nd wife. The home was built to look like a ship from the inside. The other part of the house looks like a lighthouse. Neruda collected many various things from all around the world (i.e. cups, china, music boxes, eclectic arts, books, etc.). However, he did not want to say he had a "collection". Rather he had "cositas". He made this up from the word "cosas" (for things).

Here you will find a large clock and shoes. These items were once displayed in front of store shops in Southern Chile as a way to identify what the store sold. In the past, Southern Chileans were illiterate so did not use words to identify the shops.

Sadly, Pablo Neruda died of a heart attack 12 days after Pinochet's regime took over which may had been exacerbated by the murder of his close musician friend. The regime burned more than 300 of his books from his home as a demonstration to the people in his town to not doing anything that would go against Pinochet's dictatorship.


National History Museum- This was an interesting museum to go to with various artifacts from the past. Free on Sundays. No English translation.

Precolombian Art Museum- Here we learned about the various native tribes that inhabited Chile at one time and saw various art artifacts (i.e. jewelry, sculptures, mummies, etc.)

Muscles and certain body organs were taken out to be replaced with sticks, leaves, dirt, etc. to mummify people from all classes (not just upper class) prior to Egyptian time.

Some tribes also wore animal skins over their own. Reminds me of Silence of the Lambs. (see below- someone dressed with monkey skin over his.. notice the monkey feet and hands?)

On the way back, Millie and I couldn't help asking the guards in front of the Presidental Palace, "La Moneda" for a picture with them. They were extraordinarily tall for Chileans.



I love the colorfully painted buildings that dot Santiago. Sometimes, I'd look down a small street to see a row of homes painted in bright green, coral, purple, pink. Although graffiti does flourish through some neighborhoods, there are also many professional looking murals such as the one below.