Santiago Pt 2

After seeing our new KY friends off, Karen, Alex and I headed back into the city to find the Case household. Cliff and his wife, Cynthia, were kind enough to let us crash for the evening. In the morning Cliff had coffee (regular) and oaty muffins ready for us when we woke up. We heard some great stories about the differences in Uruguay and Chilean Spanish, one being ‘y’ makes a “shzuh” sound…like the French ‘j’. Another one: instead of saying Esta bien they say ‘ta’ (on the phone). So like we would say, “uh huh, yeah, mmhmm, yep”…they say “ta, ta…ta, ta, ta, ta…” Anyway…
That morning I had a dream which I shared with the group which determined the rest of the day. I dreamt that we were in Santiago and Jose, Karen’s Korean neighbor in Viña, called me on the phone. I couldn’t understand him because he spoke Spanish (but I’m counting that as dreaming in Spanish, which means I really am learning quickly!!). Then I dreamt that it was Alex’s birthday, so we walked around town and found cheese cake to celebrate.
My dream came true on all accounts except for the phone call. Karen took us down to the capitol building and we explored the museum underneath the front park area. There was an exhibit on Violeta Parra, a famous Chilean singer, poet and artist, and an interesting exhibit on Easter Island. After that we used the walking streets looking at vendors and demonstrations. Alex bought a cooking tool, a roller to cut pasta and make empanadas. We drooled over the donut maker (the donuts weren’t for free) and watched kids learn how to draw using this pink mirror thing…not quite sure…
We found lunch at a Chinese restaurant—still so good, no matter what continent you’re on! Then we headed to the central plaza. We watched two one-man-bands dance and perform for tips, checked out the art work—a lot of paintings were of Viña del Mar and Valparaiso. We saw the cathedral and the History of Chile museum before we had to head back toward the car.
Destination Case house was interesting just because of public transportation. We put money on a Bip! card to use on the metro and bus. I think Santiago is the biggest city I’ve ever been in. You know it’s big when you’re waiting at the bus stop with a crowd of people and unable to get on the first bus (which is actually 2 buses in length—there’s an accordion attachment between them) that comes by the stop. And when you actually get on the bus, it’s literally standing room only—you’re touched by people from all sides.
We stayed for a cup of tea, then loaded our things and headed to the air port. With a Ciao Cheesecake (Nutella flavored) to celebrate goodbyes—not birthdays, we had one last moment before my plane took off.