Today we woke up, ate breakfast and then were picked up to go out on our city tour of Santiago. The first place he took us to was a hill where they had a statue of the Virgin Mary. On the hill was a small chapel and an outdoor chapel that was used once a year. Like the Christ statue in Brazil, they also had a small prayer area under the statue. From the top of the hill, there was a great view of the city.
Next he took us to Plaza las Armas, the main square in the city. The local firemen were out in the square that morning so all of the kids could check out the fire trucks and ask questions. We found out that all of the firemen in Chile (and Argentina) are volunteers. They all have professional jobs and then work as firemen on the side without pay. It's a very heroic job for the people and they get a lot of respect. They even had one of their very old fire trucks on display.
Off of the main square was a large cathedral. It was very intricate inside and the ceilings were painted just like cathedrals in Italy. They even had a small alter that was made mostly of silver decor.
Next, we were off to the Presidential Palace to see where the president does her work. We walked through the courtyard on one side and then exited out the other side.
After exiting the cathedral, our tour guide dropped us off at the local fish market. Inside there were many restaurants and many fish market boths. They were jam packed with fish, mussels, clams and even more exotic finds. We ended up eating lunch at one of the restaurants in the area of the fish market.
When we had finished lunch, the guys were getting anxious because USC's first game was going to be on that day. Paul had asked the concierge at the hotel to find out if any bars in the local area had ESPN 2. He told us that a sports bar about 3 miles away confirmed that they had ESPN 2. So with that news, we hopped in a cab to go watch the game. The got out of the cab and ran inside....only to find out that they had ESPN Viva and ESPN mas, but no ESPN 2! They recommended us trying TGI Fridays. We walked a little ways and found a Ritz Carlton, Ruby Tuesday, and eventually the TGIF's....all of which did not have the correct channel. Talk about a wild goose chase!
Cuong and Paul were thoroughly disappointed. We headed back to the hotel to go online to check the score. Phew! Good thing they won!
We decided that we might as well go relax and have a little fun after our trek around the city. Yolanda and I hit the jacuzzi while Paul & Cuong decided to play tennis, as well as ping pong.
We didn't feel like going out to dinner, so we decided we would pick up some pizza and chicken. I got a personal pizza from Telepizza and Cuong got some KFC. To my dismay, the pepperoni on my pizza tasted like FISH! As I was trying to tell Cuong about it, our phone in our room rang. It was Paul and Yolanda asking if my pizza tasted like fish! Gross! Needless to say, we were all disappointed with the food thus far in Chile.
No comments:
Post a Comment