Friday Nov. 30
Friday after work, Susi’s coworkers had invited me to have a goodbye dinner for her. They picked a pub somewhere in the city, and I was going to me them there.
I took a bikeshare on my way down. And rode along the river (if one could even call it that) in the center of the city. I love the biking in the city – it was so much faster than buses and the metro during peak hours. It was also the perfect weather and fun way to check out the city.
I took the metro the rest of the way, arrived before everyone else and out my name on the list for a party of 6. Half of Susi’s coworkers arrived shortly after – we were going to be a party of 8, not 6. Thus began our more-than-two hour to get into this pub. It was long, but in good company. Every time that the people at the door would let a party into the bar, they would chant my name, hoping that it was our turn to get in.
When we finally got in, we squeezed around a small cluster of tables and ordered immediately. The pub was known for it’s massive plates of chorillana, a Chilean dish of french fries topped with meat, eggs, caramelized onions, etc. (like French Fry Heaven in Cincinnati, but can’t say for sure because I’ve never been). When we finally got our food, the plates were super hot, so hot that the waitress started to get burnt and dropped a little but of fries and chicken (with some kind of gravy sauce) on me. On my jacket, on my dress and in my hair. It wasn’t too bad – I know that the plate was hot, and I was hungry, so I didn’t care much. But she felt bad, so she paid for my drink, which was nice. Dinner was essentially free that night since Susi still owed me for the trips that we took.
Saturday Dec. 1
I was still exhausted from travelling the previous weekend and working a lot at the museum. So, I slept in, a lot. Until about noon.
That day, I wandered around Santiago again – my favorite.
I started by heading to the Centro Artesinal in Los Dominicos to see what they had to offer. It was like a more expensive version of all of the things I had seen and bought before. I was glad that all of my shopping was done at that point.
They also had animal there, some for sale, like baby ducks and chicks. There was a peacock with it’s full spread of feathers in a cage with a bunch of large chickens. I loved watching the kids interact with it all. On my way out, I looked at the palm trees and the mountains bathed in sunshine and I realized, I was going to miss Santiago. Such a cool city in such an incredible country.
Next stop was the Museum of Precolombian Art. I really enjoyed this museum because not only was the art super cool, but it was incredible to imagine that long before the Europeans showed up, the native people were doing amazing things – many were more advanced than the Europeans. Also, looking at hundreds of years of art from different societies, I started to see universal truths appear. Humans are incredible – in how similar we are – in the past and in the present – regardless of where in the world we are.
While there, I also talked to a couple from Kansas, so that was cool.
Next stop was El Mercado Central via Bandera. It was a fish market, but everything was marked up for tourists. I decided on getting dinner at Buffalo Waffles instead.
I walked around a bit more, until it got a little cold and things started to close and headed home.
