Pooped

I didn't get to blog yesterday since it was a whirlwind of events as we wrapped up our trip in South America. Now, I'm back in my apartment in Chicago and just woke from a really long nap. I should probably get up, start unpacking and rinse this stinky airplane smell off me, but I will blog first.

Our last day in Chile finally gave us some free time to roam the city and we ended up making a great day out of it. We started at Patio Bellavista on Calle Constitucion. (If you ever find yourself in Santiago, this is the happening street at night, so we decided to check it out during the daytime.) There is a little area full of local artists booths and a few small cafes. Cute stuff. After picking up some souvenirs and meeting with other GSBers, I walked down one of the main streets toward the older part of town.

We ended up passing the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Arts), but only to use the bathroom. (The inside is pretty shabby.) Then we continued to the Market Central which we were surprised to find teeming with fresh produce, seafood and a ton of restaurants. Too bad we hadn't discovered this earlier! I love me some markets. After meandering and gawking at oddities in the seafood aisles, we headed to Paseo Ahumada (sp?) which is a little old town shopping district that reminded me of Puerta del Sol in Madrid.

The Paseo was teeming with people so we watched our bags and window shopped from a distance. (I don't think Santiago has anything too exciting for shoppers.) A few of the folks bought some little local paintings. We also discovered Pizza Conos which is pizza in cone form. Imagine an ice cream cone except a pizza crust and instead of ice cream, its cheese and toppings. Pretty interesting.

After all that, we took the subway back to our hotel and stopped briefly by a wine store to pick up the best local wine, Carmenere. Then we met with the rest of my GSB crew and headed to the airport. Unfortunately, a few members of the group fell ill with food poisoning from the very last dinner on our trip so it was a pretty painful trip for a few of them. I felt so bad to see them running to the bathroom every few minutes! Painful.

So that concludes my first trip south of the equator. Overall, I enjoyed the vacation. We lucked out with perfect weather every day and I was happy to have made new friends. I also liked the fact that you don't have to deal with jet lag which is something that I never considered before. Now my sister just needs to get her ish together for our December trip so that I can look forward to my next trip to South America...