Chile - Day 8

Today we were truly tourists, and why not? That is what we are afterall.

We took a bus tour of Santiago today. The bus was a red double decker. It was cool. We rode on the top level until it started getting too cold. It was a nice day, not quite as warm as yesterday, but warm enough that jackets weren't need until later.

The highlight of the day was the ride to see the virgin mary at the top of the mountain in the middle of the city of Santiago. To get to the top, you can ride something called a funicular. It basically is 2 cable cars pulling each other up a really steep mountain.

From the top, not only is there a huge Virgin Mary statue, but also a great view of all of Santiago. It is city of 7 million people, but it is not packed on top of everything like NYC is (dada says). It is a hybrid of NYC and LA, with some room to spread out, but not enough to be a sprawl like LA.

anyway, the view is great and Dada liked seeing the mountains some more. It was a smoggy day, so we couldn't see as far as you sometimes can, but it was still awesome.

We ate some food at the top, then fed some birds and cats and dogs.

The rest of the tour took us to a lot of the important buildings in the history of Chile. When Dada gets back he said he is going to read some more about the history because it pretty cool. Gramma K would like to know that President Kennedy was so loved her in Chile too that they named a big avenue after him. As an American Dada felt weird every time he saw 11 de Septienbre avenue. In Chile it has a much different meaning than it does in the USA. Sept 11 marks the anniversary of the uprising against the conquistadores in 1541 as well as in 1973 the coup of President Allende and the start of the Pinochet regime. Like I said, Dada is very interested in reading more about all of this.

Anyway, the tour was fun and we learned alot. We only have one more full day in Chile, which makes me sad. But then we head home, which makes me happy. Such confusing times!