Everyday Life in Santiago and the Most Touristy Thing to Do in Santiago

This is my third time visiting Garv and Lindsay in Santiago.  I distinctly remember the day they announced they were moving to Santiago because my parents’ reaction was drastically different than mine.  When Garv and Lindsay announced they were moving in December of 2013, my parents were devastated and horrified that they would be moving 5000 miles away to some God-forsaken country in South America.  While my parents were in their initial stages of shock and horror,  I was on Orbitz seconds after the announcement (not an exaggeration) looking at the price of flights and itineraries because I recognized an opportunity to travel. My excitement has manifested itself in me being their first visitor (I even beat their furniture there (the adventure of their furniture surpasses that of my luggage by far)) of many to more to come (see my sister’s blog) and being the first to visit them three times.

One of the reasons I was so excited that they were moving to Santiago is that I immediately realized that it would be an opportunity for me to visit an international city several times, become familiar with it, and come to a deeper understanding of its culture and rhythms of life.  Just four months before their announcement, I had spent two weeks sprinting through Europe and though the quick pace of that tour had allowed me to see many different cities and countries, it was so quick that I could barely get a feel for a city or country.  For example, I had a day and half in Paris and I had to manage my time well.  I spent three hours at the Louvre and I think that it would take me three days to get through it.  So now that they were moving, I would be able to spend quite a bit of time in one city and country since I would have "free" lodging.

For my first trip to Chile in 2014, I spent twelve days in Chile and last year I spent fourteen days in the country.  During the last two trips, Lindsay and I did a lot of site-seeing. In fact, yesterday morning we were trying to figure out things to do (at one time we had a plan, but the travel adventures changed those) and we went through TripAdvisor's Top Things to do in Santiago and we'd done them all except one...the #1 thing to do in Santiago: The Sky Costanera Center!

The Costanera Center is the tallest building in Latin America.  It was opened in 2015 and includes lots of office space (mostly still empty) and a huge mall (decidedly not empty--We went on a Saturday late afternoon to pick up some things quick at the grocery store and it was like a weekend at the mall in December).  On the 61st and 62nd floor of the Costanera Center there are 360 degree observation decks from which I was supposed to be able to see all of Santiago and the mountains.  On Monday afternoon, Lindsay and I visited it on our way from a lunch downtown.  From the top we did see most of the cities and mountains, but the smog in Santiago is famously horrible so the view is not as great as it potentially could be. It was still a pretty cool view though and on a clear day it would be worthy of a really high ranking.

Check out the haze of smog...

We need to work on our photography skills...

While we were at the top, Lindsay made two astute observations.  First she noticed that everyone was on their phone.  Second, she said this was the most touristy thing ever because every city has a tall building with an observation deck like the Empire State Building in New York, Sears Tower (or whatever it's called now) in Chicago, the Space Needle in Seattle, the Arch in St. Louis, etc.  

So though the Sky Costanera was the most touristy thing we could possibly do, most of my time in Santiago consisted of everyday activities.  We went to the mall and grocery store three times in five days, took a lot of naps (you'll learn why in my next post), watched the Olympics on Chilean TV because the NBC Sports app didn't work too well, borrowed clothes from Garv and Lindsay's friends, and had coffee and dinners (more on those, too) with friends.  

So though, my time in Santiago was a day short, I didn't have luggage, and only did one truly touristy thing (besides the vineyards--also more coming on those!), it was a very satisfying time because I had the time to enjoy the everyday things in life which is why I was so excited that Garv and Lindsay were moving to Santiago.  

Look at that view...

And of all my favorite everyday things in Santiago...it's the view from Garv and Lindsay's deck, as the sun sets over the mountains, reflects off the buildings, and the lights of the skyscrapers pop on at dusk.

Adventures in Travel

Good morning from Santiago!  It's Monday morning.  I made it here on Friday (I was supposed to arrive on Thursday) after some travel adventures and as of the writing of this blog, I still had not received my luggage.  Though it should hopefully get here today. Anyone who travels has frustrations but for the most part, but I've been pretty lucky and not had any major issues for ten years.  Unfortunately, on this trip I've had a lot of mishaps.

Here was my original itinerary which was scheduled for Wednesday, August 3rd.

Sioux City (SUX)-Chicago O'Hare (ORD)

ORD-Miami (MIA)

MIA-Santiago (SCL) (arrive on Thursday, August 4)

There were two things about this itinerary that made me very nervous. First, I was flying through ORD and I had consciously avoided ORD as a connecting airport since 2006 when I spent twelve hours there and lost out on one day of a trip to Philadelphia.  When booking this itinerary, I figured that maybe my 2006 episode was just bad luck.  Second, I only had a forty minute layover at ORD.  In retrospect, I shouldn't have been nervous about that layover.  I should have been nervous about the ORD-MIA flight being ninety minutes late.  My flight from ORD-MIA landed at 8:45 PM when it was supposed to have landed at 7:30 PM.  And my MIA-SCL flight left at 8:50.  No problem I thought, there were still two more flights to SCL that night.  Of course when I call the reservation center the first time, the lady told me both flights were sold out and that I would be stuck in Miami until Friday...two days!!!!  Then I went to talk to some agents at the check in counter and they also told me the flights were full.  So I got back on the phone with the reservation center and the guy was trying lots of different combinations and it wasn't looking good.  However,  he finally found me something that would work!  On Thursday, I could fly from MIA-New York (JFK) at 1:00 PM and arrive at 3:30 PM. Then I would leave JFK at 8:00 PM and arrive in SCL at 6:30 AM Friday morning.  And both flights would be in first/business class!  So even though I would be a day late, this would be a new experience and one that I had always wanted to do, but would otherwise not been able to afford.

After I arranged my flights, I got a room Wednesday night near the Miami airport.  I thought about going down to South Beach to look around, but I was very tired, frustrated, and didn't have the appropriate attire.  I woke up Thursday morning refreshed and looking forward to my travel experience.  I headed to the Miami airport early because one of the perks of first/business class is complimentary lounge access and I wanted to make sure I ate and drank "my money's worth."  I had some snacks for breakfast and then some snacks for lunch and a few drinks.  Then I headed to the gate early because I wanted to board early so I could watch the proletariat be herded to the back of the plane.  My immediate surprise about the front of the plane is how much room I had--even more than I had imagined! 

I can't even reach the front!

I also had a full meal on the plane!

I don't remember exactly what this was but it was good!

I landed at JFK on time and proceeded to the lounge.  Even though I had just had a full meal and drinks on the plane, I had a small meal and drinks at the lounge.  As I said, I was getting "my money's worth." 

I boarded the flight to Chile on time and the plane from JFK to Chile had even more room. 

What am I going to do with all this room?

And it had season 5 of Game of Thrones as an entertainment option!

Of course I'll watch Season 5 for the third time.

I didn't take any other pictures from this flight because my phone fell under the seat while I was eating and it would have been too much hassle to try to get it until after I was done eating.  But I think I used more silverware for my three course meal than I have in my entire house.  After the meal, I finished an episode of Game of Thrones I enjoyed the lay-flat seats.  I didn't sleep very well or very much, but I was comfortable and uncramped and the nine hour flight went very quickly. 

From my journey in first/business class, I experienced many benefits: lay-flat seats, more room, complimentary drinks, better food, better service, better looking flight attendants.  I was aware of these perks before but experiencing them first hand certainly made getting stranded in Miami much more tolerable.

Now as for my bags...It's Monday and I haven't seen them since Wednesday.  Hopefully, they'll be here today!

Chile is NOT Mexico!

Preface
I originally started this post during my August trip to South America.  I wrote most of it in September.  But I haven't gotten around to it until now.  I figured that if I don't post it before basketball season starts, I'll never have time for it.  So, finally, here is the wrap-up for my trip to Chile.

"Chile is NOT Mexico!"

Most Americans, I would suspect, do not conflate the countries of the English speaking world.  They know that Ireland is distinct from Canada (excepting French speaking Quebec) is distinct from Australia, the UK, South Africa, Jamaica, the US, etc. 

The English Speaking World

When it comes to countries of the Spanish speaking world, however, Americans conflate away.  Mexico equals Spain equals Chile equals Argentina, etc.  When most people read the previous sentence, they think to themselves, "Of course all of those countries are unique and distinct!"  Except when people make assumptions or ask Garv and LG about Chile, their questions are rooted in their perceptions of Mexico, which is natural considering the profound impact Mexico has on the United States.

The Spanish Speaking World

So here are some topics with which people often conflate Chile and Mexcio.

Conflation #1: Alcohol

Mexico is known for tequila.  Chile does not produce tequila and Chileans do not drink much tequila.  Northern Chile produces pisco, a liquor made from grapes,  and it is the only liquor that Chileans drink in a large quantity.  Chileans prefer their pisco mixed with Coke in drink suitably called piscola.  The other common way to drink it is in pisco sours, which is pisco, sour, lime juice, simple syrup, an egg white for froth, and bitters.  Pisco sours come in both Chilean and Peruvian versions.  The Peruvian versions are better.  There are no pictures of me with tequila.  But there are plenty of pictures of me with pisco sours...

Peruvian Pisco Sour at a Peruvian restaurant

Chilean Pisco Sour at a trendy bar

Chile also produces great wine.  The most popular wine grape in Chile is Carmenere and to quote Garv, "Malbec made Argentina famous, Carmenere should make Chile famous but hasn’t yet."  Notice he didn't mention Mexico because Mexico doesn't have the climate to make great wine...

Carmenere was a grape originally grown in France and it was thought to be extinct because of a disease in the 1860s that destroyed almost all of the Carmenere in France.  Carmenere, however, was growing in Chile though it was thought to be Merlot.  In the 1990s, an oenologist (person who studies wine) in Chile discovered that some of the grapes thought to be Merlot were actually Carmenere.  Since then, Carmenere has become the wine most associated with Chile, and for good reason, because it is excellent.  I bought ten bottles in Chile and brought them back home.  Here are some more pictures of me drinking and even one of me not drinking. 

Conflation #2: Geography, Climate, Resorts, and Beaches
Mexico has lots of resorts for American tourists to visit.  Chile does not.  Chileans have a few beach towns and local resorts that Chileans go to, but there are not many foreigners who go to Chile for the beaches.  The water off of Chile is very cold since it comes straight from Antarctica.  So it's not like the warm Caribbean where many of Mexico's resorts are.



Another major characteristic of Chile is that it is very a long country; it is three thousand miles from north to south.  I would describe it myself, but Garv did a good job already: "Chile’s population center is Santiago, everything happens here.  The north of Chile is like rural Arizona, the south of Chile is like rural Vermont (or some remote, small population place with forests and small farms) and Santiago is like Denver (big city, big buildings, activity, crime in some areas, close to the mountains)."

Conflation #3: The Police
This one is easy.  Chile's police are very trustworthy.  They are the most trustworthy in all of Latin America and Chileans are very proud of it.  Do NOT try to bribe them.  Mexico's police could not be more different.  I've heard several stories from friends who have had to pay bribes to police in Mexico.

Conflation #4: Language
 Mi espanol es muy mal.  Puedo escribir y leer un poco pero es dificil para mi hablar y eschuchar. En Chile es imposible para mi comprender. 

This was especially apparent in Argentina.  In Chile, I can't understand any Spanish, but in Argentina I could pick out enough words in a sentence to figure it out.  Part of the problem is that Chilean Spanish has some strange practices such as adding "po" to the end of words like "sipo" (yes) and "nopo" (no). They also drop the "s" from the end of words such as "gracia" which would normally be pronounced "gracias" (thanks).  Chileans also use "ciao" to say goodbye rather than adios...or adio.
 
When thinking about the English speaking world, it should make sense that Spanish is different in different countries.  Especially considering how difficult in can be to understand someone speaking English with a thick Southern or Scottish accent.

Conflation #5: Food

The most obvious conflation of Mexico and Chile is in the area of food.  Mexican food is known for its spice and flavor.  Thus, most Americans assume Chilean food is spicy.  Chileans food has no spice.  Very few restaurants in Chile even have black pepper on the table because that is too spicy.  (Chileans do love salt, however, and they douse it on many items, including bread, tacos, salads, meat, and basically anything.  And when I say douse, I mean douse.)

Here are a couple recreated conversations that happened on the trip that illustrate Chileans avoidance of spicy food:

Recreated conversation #1:
SCENE: We just sat down at El Camino, a Texas Barbecue restaurant
TK: Is that barbecue sauce on the tables?
LG: Yeah. But it doesn't look like any of the Chileans are eating it.
Garv: That makes me want to eat it even more.

We all laughed because we knew that Garv was joking about Chileans dislike of spicy food.  The barbecue sauce it self was very ketchup-y.   So it wasn't very good on meat.  But it was awesome with french fries. (Garv loves spicy food and burritos (even though burritos are an American invention) and usually gets a burrito as soon as he can when he gets back in the US.)

Recreated conversation #2:
SCENE: A Deli-Style Mexican Restaurant
Lady at the counter: Quieres salsa picante? (Do you want hot sauce?)
Random Chilean dude: No.
Garv: Of course not.

The three of us laughed again.

The variety of the cuisines we consumed in Chile is also a testament to the fact that Mexican cuisine is much better and different.  If I was in Mexico (the real Mexico, not a resort), I would eat nothing but Mexican food (It should be noted, however, that Mexico is a big country with many regional food variations--but regardless, I would be eating the regional Mexican food).  If I was in Italy, I would eat nothing but Italian food.  If I was in Spain, I would eat nothing but Spanish food.  In Chile, however, we had Chilean, American, Texan, Mexican, Venezuelan, Peruvian, Patagonian, Italian, and Middle Eastern food.  (And in Argentina we had Argentinian and Italian food.)

My favorite in Santiago, by far, is a Mexican restaurant called El Ranchero.  It's also Garv's favorite because it actually has spicy food.  In the picture below, I'm inhaling one of the six tacos I had.  I could have easily had three more, or maybe four more to reach double digits, but LG somehow talked me out of it.  I'm now regretting that decision.

Also of note in the picture below, you'll see a Chilean guy behind me.  He, like all the other Chileans, was eating his taco with a knife and fork. All the other Chileans ate them that way, too. Seriously. A total abomination and insult to tacos...

Not only do I regret not eating ten or a dozen tacos that night, I regret that I only went there once.  And I regret that we went there so late in the trip.  So this is one of the many reasons to go back to Chile.

Ciao and adio, Chile...See you next August.

This is how you eat a taco.

Buenos Aires, Part 3: Economics and Politics

This is my third and final post about Buenos Aires.  My sister also wrote about our trip.

If you have traveled internationally, you know that every country requires visitors to fill out a customs form concerning basic information and goods that are being brought into the country.  On Argentina's form, we were required to provide information about the mobile phone we were bringing into the country.  Garv, LG, and I discussed why they did that but then we soon forgot about it.

On Sunday evening in Buenos Aires, we were riding in a cab on the way to a restaurant.  During the ride, we passed a Walgreens-like pharmacy and I noticed that there was the largest signage for tampons I'd ever seen.  Then I forgot about it.

On Monday evening, we did a walking tour and at one of the stops, which was a street in a high-end neighborhood that previously had designer stores, the guide discussed Argentina's economy.  These companies left because Argentina had implemented a policy that limited companies from profiting from imported goods without exporting goods of equal value (or something like that).  So  many companies did not do business in Argentina because it was too difficult to make money there.  Two of the consequences of that policy is that one can not buy an iPhone in Argentina and that a few months prior, Argentina had a tampon shortage.  Now the customs form and billboard made more sense....Our tour guide had a iPhone which she had bought in Chile and "smuggled" into Argentina.  It doesn't seem too hard to "smuggle" everyday consumer goods into Argentina because the customs agents did absolutely no inspection or asked any questions when we went through.  (An aside: There was MUCH less security flying between Santiago and Buenos Aires than Des Moines to Minneapolis.)

This is a picture from our walking tour that really has nothing to do with the content in this blog post.  But it needed a picture  The people on the left were a couple from Dubai via the Ukraine and India.

Check out some of these headlines:

Argentina: What the tampon shortage says about the troubled country

iPhone Drought Continues in Argentina

Venezuela is running out of toilet paper

Russia declares war on cheese, western food


The common element is that in each of situations, the policies of an authoritarian or semi-authoritarian government lead to a shortage or a sharp increase of prices.

Critics of free market economies claim that the obvious conclusion of such a system is that it will devolve into a crass consumer culture in which everything is commodified and people are overly materialistic.  But then they ignore alternative that over-regulation can lead to a lack of iPhones, tampons, toilet paper, cheese, and viable options with which to save money.  The latter had a tremendous impact on our trip.  And made it really cheap!



In Chile, if we purchased something, we'd usually use our credit card, the credit card company would do the exchange calculation from Chilean Pesos to USD, and that would be it.  In Argentina, the way the monetary system works, that would be a rip-off.  There are two exchange rates in Argentina.  The official rate, which is the rate our credit card would use, was around 9.9 pesos: $1.  This rate does not float like other currencies because the government wants to maintain the illusion that there isn't rampant inflation.  There is, however, rampant inflation so there is a second rate, called the blue rate (basically the black market).  The blue rate was a much better deal for us since we could buy about 14.6 pesos: $1.  Here's the best example of how much we could save by exchanging US dollars for Argentine Pesos at the blue rate.

(Math teachers: Feel free to turn this into a story problem!) For four nights, our total hotel bill was 4200 pesos.  If we paid with a credit card, it would use the 9.9:$1 rate and in USD our total would have been $424.  However, by paying with cash we bought on the street, at the 14.6:$1 rate, our total was $287.  We saved $137!


Acquiring that cash was an interesting process--one that LG was not a fan of!  In certain areas of the city, there are "cambio guys."  Cambio means "change" in English.  There were several cambio outfits near our hotel.  The first time Garv bought pesos (using only $50 or $100 bills), we just went off to the side of the street and he pulled the money out of his jacket.  And LG HATED it!!!!!! She was reassured, however, when our tour guide on Saturday said that is was ok to do.  Also, the next few times Garv exchange money, we went to offices which wasn't as shady.  That's because the Argentine government knows their real rate isn't realistic so the authorities look the other way. 

What do the cambio guys do with the US cash?  They sell it other Argentines who use it as a form of savings because the inflation rate is so high that pesos don't hold their value.  American dollars hold their value so that's why Argentines want them.  And they're willing to buy them from tourists.

This picture also has nothing to do with the content of the post.  We went for a jog through a park and along the water on Saturday morning.

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Argentina has had many problems with money and inflation and debt and defaults throughout its history.  One of the explanations for this is that Argentines do not vote based on ideology or management ability but on force of personality.  And they like bold, strong individuals who may implement crazy fiscal and monetary policies that lead to inflation, no iPhones, and a tampon shortage. The most dominant figure in Argentine politics was Juan Peron, who's probably better known in the rest of the world for being Evita's husband.  Evita is still revered as seen in the picture below.  Is there a connection between Evita and the financial problems?  No.  But I somehow had to find a way to actually have pictures in this post that were connected to the content of the post.

There's a lot going on in this picture.  Evita is on the building eating a sandwich.  Actually she's singing into a microphone.  I took this picture in the middle of an 18! lane avenue.  And all the bikes are Kawasaki riders collecting toys.

LG and I from the balcony at Casa Rosada (Pink House), the president's office.  We're one balcony over from where Evita sang or whatever.  I haven't seen the movie.

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Buenos Aires is big, grand, exquisite, complex, European-like, and passionate.  During our trip we experienced all of those things...Long taxi rides, magnificent views of the boulevard, European-style architecture, money-changing, beef, pizza, wine, tango....

Buenos Aires, Part 2: Dancing

This is the second installment about LG's, Garv's, and my trip to Buenos Aires from August 14-18.  Part 1 was about food and drink.  My sister also wrote about Buenos Aires.

Now to discuss dancing...

I organized this in the order of our dancing experiences.


1. Flamenco Show (Friday night)
After eating at La Brigada, we wanted to see a tango show.  We were directed to a bar but on this evening, it had a flamenco dancer instead of tango.  It was pretty entertaining because the dancer was really good.  Three things stood out from the evening: a) the dancer looked like Jon Snow from Game of Thrones; b) Garv and I thought the dancer's hair was great and LG didn't; and c) a discussion (primarily between LG and me) about one of the people in the bar (no more details forthcoming).

Jon Snow--The resemblance is uncanny!

2. Tango Show (Saturday night)
On Saturday night we were supposed to have Tango lessons, dinner, and see a Tango show.  Unfortunately, the Tango lessons were canceled (we're not sure why).   This was disappointing because we were all really looking forward to it.  The Tango show, however, was incredible.  I don't know anything about tango except that it is extremely sexy.  The tango dancers in the show were clearly professional and were able to demonstrate a lot of skill and sexiness.

Before the show

3. Tango Pictures (Sunday afternoon)
In tourist areas, there are "tango dancers" with whom tourists can have their pictures taken.  Garv suggested that I do it, so I figured what the hell.  So Ana had me get into four different poses and LG snapped our pictures.  It was actually a lot of fun and provided us with a lot of laughs.

Setting up

Our first "dance"

This was actually pretty easy

A less serious one

A very serious one

4. Street Tangos (Sunday afternoon)
In tourist areas, street performers and small bars also have tango shows for tourists.  These do NOT exist throughout the city, but they were fun to see.

5. Ballet (Sunday evening)
On Sunday evening, we got tickets to watch ballet at the Teatro Colon, a world-wide famous performance venue.  Since we have no knowledge or interest in ballet, we got the $5 seats because we wanted to see the building.  Our $5 seats ended up being standing room only tickets in the 7th or 8th or 12th deck or whatever and we could barely see.  The building itself is magnificent, but extremely inefficient.  (I estimate that it only sat about 1500-2000 people (which is about what a high school gym can seat.)  The first half of the ballet, before intermission, was pretty interesting because of the skill involved.  After intermission, we moved down a level to some actual seats.  It was almost impossible to see from the seats, I was tired, and there's only so much ballet I can appreciate despite being "well-cultured" so I napped for almost the entire second half of the performance.  Napping was a great decision.

Exterior of Teatro Colon

Don't lean over the rail too far

Lots of decks

6. Milonga (Sunday night)
The milonga was definitely the highlight of the dancing.  A milonga is simply a place where the tango is danced (or in this case the two-step (or something similar) set to 1950s American music).  This milonga was held in a place that resembled a VFW or American Legion hall and it was locals enjoying a Sunday night before a national holiday on Monday.  The dance floor had three groups: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.  Each group had a couple leading the dance steps.  The men were on one side and the guy showed the "students" the steps while the woman did the same with the women.  Then after five minutes or so, the leaders had the men and women select a partner and dance for a few minutes together before switching to new partners.

"Learning" the dance steps

After ten minutes or so of observing (especially noting that women outnumbered men), I decided to give it a try.  (I am a poor dancer.  I inherited my dancing from my dad who is undoubtedly the worst dancer ever.  For whatever reason, the footwork for dancing is not natural to me.  It's strange that I have good footwork when it comes to sports, but such horrible footwork when it comes to dance.)  So I get out there and the leader guy had us guys go through the steps for five minutes and I thought I had it down...Then it was time to find a partner and luckily for me, the first partner I selected was British!  It went pretty well because she was able to tell me what to do.  Then it was time to switch partners and the girl I picked was from a northern Argentinian province and her English was much worse than my Spanish.  But she wasn't a good dancer either so we just kind of moved around and had fun.  Then for my last partner, I selected a Porteno who should have been with the intermediate or advanced group.  She didn't speak any English and was trying to get me to do the steps absolutely correctly and it was going disastrously.  The leader dude saw my difficulties and tried to help, but it wasn't going well...So he left and she tried to teach me some more.  But since she couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak the language of dance, it wasn't as much fun...Then it was time to switch partners so I slunk off the dance floor to have a beer...

Shortly after, the lessons ended and the floor was opened up for people to dance.  So the good dancers come out and we watched them and it was very interesting.  It's one of those things, like playing guitar, that I wish I could do but I'm so bad at that I choose to allocate my time in other ways...like writing blogs.

A Birthday in Santiago!

First of all, thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes!  When I reflected upon all the birthday greetings, I was humbled that I received well-wishes from all stops of my life--family, Remsen, RU, University of Iowa, IKM, Ole Miss, ELC, Boji, SMSU, and many places in between and far away.  Many people wished me a great day and it was!  So I decided to write about it because I had such an enjoyable day with LG and Garv.   And don't worry, I'll still be writing more about Buenos Aires tomorrow.

So here's my day.

9:30 am: Wake up.  I wake up at 9:30 most days here.  The sun doesn't come up until 8:30 anyways.

10:00 am:  Walking tour of Nunoa, a comuna (mini-municipality) of Santiago

One of the many reasons I was excited to visit Santiago for a second time was that I would be able to see parts of the city that are not necessarily remarkable to tourists.  Nunoa is certainly not remarkable to tourists, but it is my new favorite part of the city.

LG and I visited Nunoa because there was a self-guided walking tour with six stops, and it is the part of town where LG volunteers in the schools, so she wanted me to see her schools.  The first stop was the National Stadium.  The National Stadium has some interesting history since it was a detention center during the dictatorship.  Because of that, 300 seats remain unoccupied in memory of the victims during each soccer match, including Chile's victory there in the Copa America in July.  We were only able to see the exterior the stadium so I snapped a few pictures.  I found the playground interesting because someone is missing out on a lot of parking revenue.  There's no way a stadium in the United States would have largely unused playground where expensive parking spots could otherwise be.  When I mentioned this to Garv, he laughed and said that "Financial transactions are the farthest thing from [Chileans'] mind.  It's just different."

Lots of lost revenue!

Showing off my pipes with an imitation of some random Greek statue.

The major reason I liked Nunoa so much is because of the area around Plaza Nunoa, the last stop on the walking tour.  It was an upper middle class neighborhood; had lots of restaurants, bars, and shops; it was very clean and orderly; and it wasn't at all touristy.  I especially love the picture below--the mountains, the apartment building, the church with unique architecture, and the palm tree--because I'm clearly in a foreign country.

4:30 pm: Nap

5:30 pm: Work out

Santiago has lots of parks and many of them are located in the middle of boulevards.  They have crushed gravel paths for jogging and walking and playgrounds and workout equipment in the grassy areas.  So I jogged a mile and a half or so (the perfect distance!) and then did some pushups, pullups, and abs.  But I didn't work out too much because I knew I'd be doing a little (or a lot of) drinking later.

8:30 pm: CHPE Libre

For an aperitif and appetizer, we went to CHPE Libre, a pisco bar and restaurant in a trendy part of Santiago called Lastarria.  This is one of the most brilliantly conceived restaurant/bars ever.  Pisco is a liquor made from grapes and these grapes grow particularly well in northern Chile and southern Peru.  So the CHPE part of the name is derived from the first two letters of each countries' name and they called it the Independent Republic of Pisco.  That's not what was brilliant!  What was really brilliant was that they appropriated communist symbols as a marketing aspect of a capitalist enterprise.  That's the perfect place for me on my birthday.  Pure brilliance.

I love places with maps!

A new country!

Power to cocktails for the bourgeoisie!

The food and drink was excellent, too.  We each ordered a different a different pisco drink and some ceviche (raw fish marinated in lemon juice), flanked by two different kinds of corn.  It was an excellent start to my birthday evening.

Ceviche

Another picture of me with a drink...

9:30 pm: Bocanariz

Last year, I ranked Bocanariz as my second favorite experience.  Here was a conversation LG and I had about my birthday plans:

LG: What do you want to do for your birthday?
TK: Go to Bocanariz.
LG: But I wanted to go to Bocanariz one day for lunch.
TK: It's my birthday!

Needless to say, the birthday boy won.

We had reservations at 9:30 and since CHPE Libre was right next door to Bocanariz, we were right on time.  Which, in Chile, means we were way early.  Since we were early, the host let us go down to their cellar which had thousands of wines, all of which were from Chile (which also makes Bocanariz a brilliantly conceived restaurant).  We (or mainly Garv) peppered the host with questions about wine and he even dug out an expensive one for us to look at (and take a picture with).

I was really nervous about dropping this bottle even though the floor was crushed gravel...

Once we were seated, I thoroughly analyzed the place mat that had a map of central Chile on it.  Since Chile is such a long country, only part of it fit on a place mat.  When you put three place mats together, it would have been most of Chile.  But I didn't go that far.

In between map gazing, we also looked through the wine menu which is extensive.  One of my favorite things about Bocanariz is that it is all Chilean wine.  I really don't know that much about Chilean wine (I just drink it), but Garv knows a fair amount and he splurged on a bottle since it was my birthday.  It was very good and, of course, we got a picture of me drinking it.  We also ordered three small plates and a dessert and all of them were excellent.

And another picture of me drinking wine--with a plate of hams from various animals... 

 I also love Bocanariz because this is the greatest thing ever for a wine bar/restaurant...

We only had one bottle...

 Once again, thanks to everyone for the birthday notes.  And thanks to LG and Garv for sharing it with me in Santiago!