Addendum: Sam & Stephanie go to Chile

Hello again and happy holidays.

I want to check back and in and write about our Thanksgiving trip to Santiago, Chile. Our friend and colleague Natasha spent 3 months on assignment in Santiago, and Stephanie and I went down over Thanksgiving to pay a visit.

Our trip was relatively brief. We spent most of 4 whole days in Santiago, and most of 2 whole days getting there and back. The flights were long and uncomfortable as usual, but there was an unusual perk too. One of our layovers happened to be in Panama City, Panama. Normally, seeing things out the window of a plane isn't noteworthy, or even blogworthy. The Panama canal is without question an exception. There are dozens of giant ships queued up on either side of the canal, and it's a pretty impressive accomplishment of engineering.

But enough about the flights. We arrived very late Wednesday night or maybe very early Thursday evening. After trudging through customs, we got a cab and headed for our apartment in the Providencia neighborhood of Santiago. Along the way, and especially when we arrived, Stephanie's spanish was immediately put to the test. The night doorman at our apartment didn't seem to have one word of English, and apparently Stephanie didn't remember the lesson on key phrases in conversing about online apartment sharing services from her high school spanish classes 10 years ago. But she worked through it, and eventually we found our keys and entered our temporary home.

One of the highlights of our time in Santiago was the consistently excellent weather. 85 and sunny every day. Compared to the teens, twenties, and snow we were coming from in Des Moines, it was more than welcome.

While in Santiago, we did a lot of roaming the city and enjoying restaurants and cafes. A few of the specific highlights of our brief stay were:

• The museum of memory and human rights. This isn't the place to go for a roaring good time, but it is well done and powerful. The museum tells the stories of the years of dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s and '80s. I admit that I was largely ignorant of this dark piece of history before going to the museum, and I'm glad I went and got a feel for a big part of what has shaped the Chile of today.
• Vino Cousino Macul is a vineyard & winery within the Santiago city limits. The people from the winery who were there the day we went for a tour were about as friendly and welcoming as you could ask. We had a little mishap with trying to schedule a tour online and showing up after the final tour had started for the day, but they went out of their way to make our experience memorable and positive. The tour guide spoke English, and for the half of the tour that we caught up for, he said everything twice. Not only did he speak flawless English, but his Spanish was so crystal clear that even I had a chance of understanding a few phrases.
• The three of us also climbed to top of the San Cristobal hill on Sunday. Again, the weather during this time of year is apparently always perfect, so this was a great way to spend part of a day. Santiago's largest public city park is situated on a giant hill (Stephanie insists it's more of a small mountain). When we visited on the weekend, the park was packed with people biking and walking, as well as lots of programming put on by what I assume is the city's parks department. After maybe an hour of steady hiking, we made it to the summit and saw the entire of the valley in which Santiago sits. 
• On Saturday night, Stephanie and I were both craving a late night snack, so we ventured out in search of a late-night cafe or convenience store. What we found was a lively night time street festival called the Noche de Colores (Night of colors). There were lots of little shops open, along with temporary craft stands and food and drink. There were also musicians and lots of colorful lights illuminating a few blocks of Providencia. 
• We enjoyed our fair share of nice restaurants. Even though Stephanie isn't much of a seafood fan, she found plenty to eat. I enjoyed more fish and other fruits de mer than I usually do, including some delicious parmesan cheese oysters at the bustling Mercado Central sea food market. We also indulged in a few Pisco Sours while we were there. Pisco is the official unofficial liqueur of Chile. I understand that if you ask someone from Peru, they will tell you that it's theirs, but we went to Chile, so we side with them.

Our time was brief, but I think we both enjoyed going. It was good to get away, especially to somewhere warm with long days full of sunshine. It was also good to see our friend Natasha and hear about her time in a new place. One thing I noticed was that the Santiago locals didn't necessarily welcome us with open arms. They weren't mean or rude, but they seemed largely indifferent to our presence. It was interesting that the notable exception to this was any international residents of Santiago, who generally were much more outgoing and quick to advise us on good things to check out. I think if we had planned more time, or put more effort into planning the time we did spend there, we probably would have ventured outside of Santiago. Chile has all sorts of natural treasures that we didn't really take advantage of. If we ever make it back, we will definitely make it a point to check out the real mountains and the ocean. As it was, it was a nice trip together, and it is nice to be familiar with a new place.

Note from the author: We might add pictures later and this might have lots of errors. It's also 2 months late.