Chile

Our next adventure begins today!! The flight leaves at 4:30 this afternoon so I have made the most of the day. Took my constitutional walk of 5 miles at 5:30; drove to Poplarville at 8:00 to deliver 4 bales of hay (one at a time in the back of my car) to our hungry horses and returned home by 12:00 or so; finished the “throwing in” stage of packing; called an Uber and we’ve been talking about finances at gate D6 for the last half hour. the flight to Atlanta boards soon and starts the flight to Santiago, Chile.

Allan and I have arrived in Santiago! On time, easy flight but of course, a difficult and fitful sleep. Our first view of Chile from inside the airport showed that we are surrounded by mountains! Now on our way by taxi (slowly since there is traffic) to meet the Arthurs and Williams at the Hotel Plaza San Francisco. It is sunny, warm (75 now) and dry here–much like California.

After arriving at the hotel, we visited with our travel companions and headed to lunch and a tour of Santiago by the red Hop-on Hop-off bus. Lunch was at a lively little area adjacent to the Universidad Catholica called Urrolia and we returned to bus stop number 8 across Bernardo O’Higgins street from Santa Lucia Park. Again, there was much traffic and slow going for our bus ride, but we were told about and saw from the street most of Santiago. It is a big city (give or take 8 million people) and very busy on Friday afternoon with people cashing their paychecks and beginning the weekend. The city has been through many different governments to arrive today at a true democracy. Valdivia founded Santiago in 1541 at the base of what is now known as Santa Lucia Hill.

After a nice nap we had drinks and dinner in the hotel lounge and restaurant called La Cascada. The menu was photographed and managed on a computerized tablet so it was an interesting experience. We must have had 5 waiters trying to help us with the tablets, bill us for the wine we had in the lounge, and take our orders–only one of the waiters spoke good enough English to be helpful. It was a relatively early night for Allan me and we look forward to arriving in Balmaceda, Patagonia (Chile) tomorrow.

Buenas noches,

Nancy