In Santiago!

After 5 hours of delays and 15 hours in the air, we arrived safely in Santiago. We were greeted by Sebastian (UCSF organizing student) and Pablo (the main Chilean professor). Pablo took us and 3 others to an apartment that he owns in Santiago to stay. We took some much needed showers and a quick nap to start to recover.

The apartment is great. Plenty of room, close to the subway, with beautiful views. Nate and I have our own double room with a private bathroom, with Brad and Joy in another, and Paul in the third available bedroom.

Emboldened by some good map advice from Pablo, we set out with Paul to check out downtown Santiago. The Metro subway is fantastic, and puts the Muni to shame. For about 80 cents US (not too sure because we're still trying to figure out the conversion and exactly what type of ticket we bought), we were downtown in less than 10 minutes.

We hiked up to the top of Santa Lucia park and gardens where there is an old castle (Castillo Hidalgo) that overlooks much of the city. At that point it was still a little overcast, so we couldn't see too much of the Andes in the distance, but it was pretty amazing. Santiago is huge. Pockets of high-rises stretching out for miles, er kilometers.

We then started strolling down the Alameda toward the presidential palace. Upon reaching the main gate to walk in, we ran into Terri another familiar UCSF face. And soon a bunch of other people turned up, so we happened into a nice afternoon strolling around a little more (now with some Chileno hosts as well) before grabbing a nice cafe cortado (half coffee, half cream, plus some sugar) to boost us for the evening.

Now we're back at the apartment fora few minutes, getting ready to head out for dinner. No one eats dinner here before 9:00 apparently, and many of the restaurants are closed through what we would consider dinnertime.

So we're doing well, and excited to see what tomorrow brings.

Pictures of today:
http://community.webshots.com/album/555170599QJdOoD

Go Time

Only 6 hours 'til flight time!

Leaving tomorrow morning

Excited to go!