You gotta make ceveche. Hola friends and family and welcome to our running tally on what's happening in our part of the world. We'll try to keep this updated about every week or so and include as many pics as we can. Please drop us a line- we'd love to hear from you! We miss and love you all and without further adieu, here's what our first 11 days have been like....
11 hours in the air. 4 bad movies. 32 minutes of sleep and 1 ham sandwich sin crust later, we dropped down into the night lights of Santiago. Once you've paid the fee for being from the States ($150 each), you're allowed to proceed into this beautiful country. Our first confusing Chilenismo conversation came quick but without too much trouble we made it to our B&B, aka Hostel de Santiago. It's in a neighborhood called barrio Yungay which is really close to Barrio Brasil and about 15 blocks from the Plaza de Armas. Plaze de Armas is amazing and it was pure luck that we happened to walk to it on our first day in town. Plaza de Armas now has special significance for me because a day later I was lucky enough to witness my first public heart attack in the square... Quite an event in a foreign country; they moved in quickly and cleaned up the mess. The portly gentleman seemed to respond well to treatment. While the medics administered at least seven minutes of cpr the other onlookers continued on with their intense chess matches. Throughout the ordeal I could only think of two things: the man's health and potential pickpockets taking advantage of the situation... Everybody came out ok!
This bring us to the next topic- you gotta be a bit street savvy in this town. Two gringos stand out pretty easily in this ciudad of master thieves. The Chileans are know for their creative and smooth techniques when it comes to the five finger discount and some of the stories we've heard and situations we've seen have confirmed this. I had 9 mil (about 20 bucks) stolen by the gentleman selling metro passes. I purchased 10 mil and he only loaded my card with 1. The good thing is violence is not an issue; with the exception of the chest compressions things have been pretty tame.
The Americans that we've met so far could be summed up as a mixed bag. A lot more frat boy and girls than you would expect, but then again - old money will find you anywhere. Not to be judgmental, once you get through a number of layers these old money folks are halfway decent.. The Brits and Aussies are as you would expect, clear eyed and well traveled - a pleasure to be around! We are elderly at 27; it seems that most of our colleagues are around 23- fresh off the boat and curious about our late in life decision to live abroad. But any conversation in English is at this point welcome, so we humor them.
After conquering the transportation system, not much to conquer- it's pretty easy, we've been scouting out the town and looking for a more permanent abode. Lucky for us we had the help of our attorney, Adriana, who struck us a great deal in an amazing location. Check out plaza Italia when you have a chance and you'll see our view. Cerro San Cristobal in the background, parque Bustamante to our right, a diner with cervesas and gelato right below, and a 45 second walk to our metro station- perfecto. We move in tonight and just in time- I'm down to my last sock.
Basta por hoy!
Chao
