Santiago, Chile - Week 2 (The City of the Island Hills)

Hello Family and Friends,

Brett and I took some time to do some touristy things. We rented bikes and rode out to the center of the city to ride the "funicular" of Santiago. It is very similar to the one in Vina del Mar, but it is larger.

In the process of passing a funicular going the opposite direction

We rode to the top of a hill named "San Cristobal". Once we reached the top of the hill we got the best views of the city.

At the top of "Cerro San Cristobal" with the city of Santiago below us.

The funicular is located in Santiago's version of central park, "Parque Metropolitano de Santiago". There is a zoo, but it was not open due to renovations. There is also a Japanese garden and children's jump park. We also saw lots of bikers enjoying the park. Then we rode on another type of cable car called a "teleferico".

Getting the best views of the mountains when riding the "teleferico".

In our day to day lives, I'm loving the city! I will be walking back from dropping Atlas off at school and get this stupid grin on my face, just because Santiago feels so good. Now one thing happened recently that very well may take Santiago off of the list. They had their elections and the results were not desirable. There were a couple of things that let us know it was election day. First the mall was boarded up and closed. It looked like they were preparing for a riot with security guards posted at various doors. Also the McDonalds had a sign that translated to something like we are waiting for you. I also saw advertisements for news outlets that were broadcasting the elections all day. And at church they prayed for a fair election. The moment the poles closed the cars started honking in the streets.

This is what we heard from our apartment window until about 11:30 at night.

I could see cars driving by flying the chilean flag. I told Brett that we should go outside and check it out, but he said that was a bad idea as we are black. Furthermore the guy who won the election is the right wing, son of an escaped German Nazi, who campaigned for Pinochet, the last dictator of Chile before they revolted and became a democracy. He went so far as to say if Pinochet was alive the dictator that disappeared thousands of his own people would vote for him. People are referring to the president-elect as Pinochet without the military uniform. The day after the election, I had to admit to myself that this elections has put a dark cloud over Chile for me. Chile was high in the running of places I could see myself living, but with the new leadership, we will have to see how much damage Chile can withstand. It is interesting how I care about foreign elections now that we are traveling. The new president will take office in March, so for now, Chile is still the same and we are enjoying every moment of it.

Atlas trying out his balance bike for the first time.

We are continuing to look for neighborhoods to live in Santiago. As much as I love this area of Providencia, the housing is dated and I don't mean a little dated. I mean yellow bathroom fixtures and carpet in bathrooms. The homes don't even have good bones. So Brett had a good idea looking for places to live around the various parks in the city. One park we explored had a dog park, outdoor roller skating rink, outdoor fitness center, basketball court, volleyball court, skate/bark park and a garden. It was a great space with lots of people enjoying the outdoors. We also found this Star Wars themed restaurant, which was just a lot of fun.

Star Wars themed bar located in "Nowa's Cantina".

The drinks were smokey and the food was colorful.

My very fun, not kid friendly beverage from another galaxy.

For the weekend we are planning to get out of the city. Our first weekend in Chile we went to the beach and now we would love to see the mountains.