2nd day in Santiago and another update, but probably only because the internet is free and in the hotel · dont expect this to continue.
Ah Jet lag, we really shouldnt have slept in the afternoon, but the upside of being awake at 2am was that the next episode of Greys Anatomy was on!!!!!! so now I am actually ahead of NZ heheh and it was a goodie. But then couldnt sleep till about 5:30am.
Then it was up at 7 for our first Chiliean breakfast = they like meat and doughy bread. then we were collected by our loving tour guide Oscar (who we gave a big tip to today to make up for yesterday!) who took us all around Santiago for half a day. And I must say I have been really impressed with the city. It is all flat but the Andes are so close its not funny. We were fortunate enough to witness the changing of the guard at the Presidental Palace ....was so cool....a full marching band complete with conductor and then a lot of saluting and shaking of hands and after half an hour the deed is done and there is a new lot of guards.
There are a lot of police and guards here, guard of the garden, guard of the museum, guard of the army barracks and all the police have handguns on their waistes which they dont seem to hold onto but then no one seems to run up and grab them either!!!!
There are also a lot of stray dogs.....rabid or not I ma glad I have had my injection...most of them are cute but there is no way we are going near them!
We went up to see the Virgin who looks out over the city, she was pretty cool and some young chiliaen boys yelled at me till i took there picture. they were very funny yelling thank you thank you back at me.
we walked around for ages trying to find a place to eat lunch and ended up in a place near the presidental palace, and the waitors had tuxedos on which should have been a warning.....basically we had chicken and chips (which were nice) but so much more expensive than anything else we have seen. Also we were the only people in the place not wearing suits and ties....and to top it off we gave what we thought was a good tip and got a very digruntled response.....just can´t seem to get the tipping right, but have now decided to turn it into a game...will we make them happy or sad?
Also went into two amazing cathederals today, full on catholisism )can´t spell) complete with altars and palms from palm sunday, people praying and receiving confession...they are so beautiful but i feel a bit intrusive because we dont cross overself or pray we just look at all the beautiful things, no one seems to mind though.
the people here are very passionate and it is not uncommon to see a couple having a nice big pash on a street corner
they love it, I can´t help but stare, I dont think Chris and I will be taking up that particulare trait.
Also it seems that anything with the word Cafe on it is a strip bar, spied some lovely latin ladies when a door opened.....could be confusing...coffee or naked lady!
we are getting much better at spanish and making ourselves understood, by the end of this trip we will be experts.
tomorrow we are off to revisist the Santa Lucia gardens which used to be a fortress, pretty amazing stuff.
Hope you are all well, and not missing us too much and thanks for the messgaes
