Today was supposed to be the day that we took a tour of the largest winery in Chile, Concha y Toro. But because we couldn't get a hold of them to secure a reservation we decided to hold off and go tomorrow. With the late change in plans we weren't quite clear what to do with our day. In the end, we split up to explore different areas of the city. Tiffany and Lula went to the largest mall in the city, while Megan and I decided to checkout a museum and then go hiking. I think these choices pretty much represent our likes. Meg & I are much more the outdoorsy types and Lula and Tiffany are the resident fashionistas. There's nothing wrong with either approach and I'm glad that as a group we're cool splitting up and doing different things at times. Some people who travel together never like to split up. We've taken a more relaxed approach of just doing what you like.
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| Flying dogs in the lobby |
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| Megan in the Frozen Dogs exhibit |
Megan and I stopped for ice cream on the way to the Museo Nacional de Bella's Artes (MNBA, or in English the National Museum of Beautiful Arts). I was glad to start the day off with my favorite food! One of our classmates here, Brad, met us at the museum. Though there was a lot of hype about the museum in guidebooks, the MNBA was less grand than I thought. There was a renovation going on and some areas were closed, but we still saw some rather interesting art such as dogs that appeared to be flying, frozen dogs, and a painted map of the city if Santiago (I guess that's art?).
Next we headed to hike the San Cristobal hill and see the Cristo statue. Several of our classmates had already done the hike and they said it was cool. I found the hike to be steeper and more challenging than I was expecting, which was a good thing. I was happy to have a good workout. Along the way up the hill we would stop and take pictures of the city. The views kept getting bigger and bigger the further we went up. And as we reached the top, Megan and I realized the Cristo statue was actually a woman! Oops! Instead of being a statue of Jesus Christ, as we thought, it was really a statue of the Virgin Mary. We rested for a while a the top, sat on some stairs that were super hot from all the sun, and took pictures like the other tourist. One local even asked Megan to take a picture of him in front of the Virgin Mary and gave her very specific instructions on how to take the photo. Brad and I just stood my and laughed as we observed the entire conversation, which was quite funny.
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After our hike we were hungry and decided to find a place to eat. On the way, we passed by the house of Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet. We would have loved to have gone inside and checked out his house/museum but it was closed. I remember reading Neruda's poems in my Spanish undergraduate classes. They were amazingly good and maybe I'll have to google some while I'm here. Next we moved on to dinner as all of us were starving. We ended up ordered German/Chilean food that was good, but not great. Though we attempted to order typical Chilean food, the table next to us, which was filled with Germans, informed us that our food looked much more German than Chilean. Oh well, we tried. I still have yet to find a restaurant here that has 'wowed' me. Hopefully that will happen before we leave Chile.
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