Llegada a Santiago: July 5, 2014, Day 1 Part 1

I'm in Santiago for about two weeks. Now that I have an iphone, I can take pictures so I'm going to do a little blogging or photo essaying or something about my trip. I'm in Santiago because Garv, my brother-in-law and best friend, started a job there in April.  My sister moved down in June after her school year ended.

 If I was a travel agent, I would count day 1 as Friday, July 4th to make my trip sound longer.  But most of it was spent in Atlanta's airport so I'll call that Day 0.  I had an eight hour layover there and I did accomplish something--writing a wrap up of genius hour.  I fully intended to accomplish more but instead I had Yuenglings in Terminals C, D, E, and F.  Hey, I'm on vacation.  My flight left Atlanta at 10:45 PM and I arrived (llegada) in Santiago at about 8:30 AM (Santiago is now the same time as Eastern Time).  So I'm counting Day 1 as my first day in Santiago.

Day 1 was expertly planned by Garv.  He lined up a driver to pick me up at the airport which was much easier than hailing a taxi.  When I arrived at their apartment, we took a selfie from their terrace to send to the parents, and then I ate a banana and a bowl of cereal.

Next, we walked up Cerro San Cristobal (St. Christopher's Hill) which was a great idea because I'd spent most of the previous twenty-four hours sitting on my ass.  On a clear day, one would have a great view of the city.  Alas, it was Big Ten football weather--gray and cloudy.  We didn't make it to the top because I didn't want to walk too far and repeat the infamous Grand Canyon experience (Lindsay and Garv once thought it would be a good idea to drive eighteen hours and then the next day hike down the Grand Canyon and back up.  The hike back up was me unleashing a torrent of F-bombs at them with nearly every step).  During the hike up Cerro San Cristobal, we made a new friend--a dog with a broken hind leg.  According to Garv and Lindsay, Santiago lets stray dogs wander.  This dog took a liking to us--we hypothetize it was because he liked that we spoke English.  The dog followed us most of the way up and all of the way down until we eventually shook him.

 We next walked to Fuente Alemana (German Fountain) for a Lomito (a pork sandwich concoction with avacado, cheese, tomato sauce, and some sort of other sauce) and schlop (draft beer).  It was exactly the type of meal I needed after a day of airport and airplane food.  The place was called German because there is a signifcant German influence in Chile.  And it's called the fountain because it served beer.

After the sandwich and fountain of beer, we went back to the apartment to watch the end of the Argentina and Belgium match and take a siesta.  The siesta felt amazing, mainly because I was able to sleep laying down instead of sitting up.  Then I woke up and took these pictures from the terrace outside my bedroom.

Now it's about 6:30 and penalty kicks in the Netherlands and Costa Rica match are about to begin.  Then at about 9:00 we'll go out to eat and have a few drinks.  They get a late start here...