Santiago, Where I Lost My Heart To Papas Rellenas.

Our home base in Chile was Santiago. We were there for three days and we stayed at the Holiday Inn by the airport. We drove to the installation sites/orphanages since it was safer to stay in Santiago. We pretty much got off the airplane, dropped our suitcases off at the hotel, and went to work. Half of the security team came down the day before with the supplies for Chile. It was quite an awesome sight seeing all the medical supplies, building supplies, and pallets of water! Seriously, we had six pallets of water bottles for while we were in Chile alone! Actually, every city we had a home base in had an airport so we could get the supplies we needed for each region we were in. The super rich UMB alumni who funded this venture and helped plan it were super smart with the logistics!
But enough about work! On to being a tourist! We saw several sites in Santiago. It was cool that most of the time it was just me, Billy, and Robbie. Robbie was the security person assigned to Billy and I since we had to be at the installation sites before the others. Funny thing, Robbie is also LDS and is from Richmond. I thought that it was awesome! Apparently, Robbie was grateful he got us to watch over since we decided to actually go sight see instead of frequent the clubs and bars. Not to mention, he likes to eat as much as I do! It also helped that he served his mission in Peru so he served as our translator too! Small world, isn't it?
The first site we saw was the house that Pablo Neruda built for his mistress, Matilde. It is called La Chascona. It was really cool to see the house since I read most of Neruda's poetry when I was 15. Being able to see where he wrote some of my favorite poems was eye-opening and allowed me to kind of see into his life.

Sign to La Chascona

Decorative Sign at La Chascona

The Outside of La Chascona. It is actually a nice design and it's painted nice bright colors!

The courtyard of La Chascona

La Chascona had the most brilliant library! Unfortunately, our tour guide wouldn't let us take pictures in the house. It was an interesting place to see. It was also cool to see a bunch of teenagers hanging around the courtyard just talking. It seems that Neruda's courtyard is a popular hangout spot for them. I bet Neruda would have like that.
Santiago seems to have churches everywhere! And several of them are really old! We went to Iglesia de San Francisco which is the oldest church in the city and it has survived three earthquakes! It was built in the late 1500s around 1586 they think. It was cool being in a place so old! It also hosts a wall inside that students come in and write their prayers for their family and friends down. I thought that that was an awesome thing that the students did!

Iglesia de San Francisco

The ceiling was amazing!

Inside the church

The prayer wall.

The only other church I took a picture of was the Basilica de La Merced and that was because it was super pretty.

See! It's absolutely gorgeous!

We also went to the Plaza de Armas which is like the city center. It has the Catedral Metropolitania which is a HUGE cathedral and other sites that we weren't able to get to.

The Plaza de Armas with the Cathedral on the other side.

We also were able to see the La Moneda which is the Presidential Palace. It was huge too!

La Moneda

Look at all of the Chilean flags outside La Moneda

La Moneda is huge!!!

We also went to Cerro San Cristóbal which is a hill in Santiago that is the home to the largest park in Santiago as well as a huge statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At Cerro San Cristóbal going to go see the Virgin Mary statue

The Virgin Mary Statue

You can light a candle by the statue. Billy lit one before we left.

The view of Santiago from Cerro San Cristóbal.

The last thing we saw was Cerro Santa Lucia which is a hill that was in the center of Santiago. It is a pretty place with a lot of stairways and fountains. It also is the home of Fort Hidalgo which was visited by Charles Darwin. There is also a cemetery there that is the burial place for the dissendents or people who didn't follow the Catholic faith when it was mandatory in Santiago.

The park at Santa Lucia.

I liked all the beautiful buildings. I think the Plaza Neptune is what this is. I can't remember.

This is Fort Hidalgo or what remains of it.

The view of Santiago from Fort Hidalgo.

One of my favorite things was seeing the Santiago temple. We were heading to one of the installation sites and I saw it up ahead and made Billy stop. Apparently, I scared Billy since I was the navigator. He thought we were going the wrong way. He was a little surprised that the fuss was about stopping to take a picture. Oh well! I don't regret it.

The Santiago temple!

We also took part of a day to go see Vina del Mar which is a beach town about 90 minutes from Santiago. It was very pretty. But the best part was that I got to see an Easter Island head (Moai) at the monastery there! I had no idea that Easter Island was off the coast of Chile!

The view of Santiago on the way to Vina del Mar.

Vina del Mar

Castillo Ross

Castillo Wulf. It was built by German immigrants.

The Moai at Vina del Mar!!!

Santiago on the way back from Vina del Mar. It's kinda pretty at night!

One of the best part of traveling is the food! Which I took full advantage of! I stuffed myself full of papa rellenas, empanadas, and this delicious strawberry juice! Yum!

Papas Rellenas! They are pretty much mashed potatoes with flour added to make a dough. The centers are filled with meat and cheese and then fried. So good!

The Strawberry Juice!

That's all we saw in Chile. It looks like a lot but we actually saw most of the sites in the evenings. It also helped that the last day in Chile we got to spend sightseeing. I want to go back!