Exploring Santiago: Day 2

Remember how I couldn't fall asleep the night before? Well 7am came way too soon! Reese and I got up, excited to use the hotel's gym, only to be disappointed when we got down there. There is only 3 treadmills, 1 eliptical, and two bicycles. No weights! Ah, you can imagine our disapointment. Plus the last two weeks before we came here was so busy I wasn't able to go to gym as much as I would have liked too. Needless to say, I feel like I am loosing muscle! Oh well- that is the only complaint I have with the hotel. Other than that (which isn't even a legitimate complaint) the hotel is fantastic. Reese and I will just be doing a lot of cardio! The hotel has guest computers near the lobby, so after our work-out we printed out some excercises we can do without any weights. Problem solved!

After gym, we had the free breakfast served at the hotel. It was divine! Lots of fresh fruits, fresh fruit juices, yoghurt, yummy breads, jams, cheese's, and some deli meats. A popular Chilean breakfast is bread, crackers, cheese, and deli meat. Chileans also start their days later. Typical business hours (for us it's usually 8am-5pm with an hour lunch) are 10am-7pm. So everything is pushed back a bit. Breakfast is at around 8 or 9am, lunch is around 3pm, and most restaurants don't start serving dinner till 7pm (and they only start getting busy around 8pm).

So after the delicious breakfast, we went back to the room to get ready for the day! Reese had to work for about an hour in the morning, so once we were ready, we first went to the office he is going to be conducting interviews at. The office is about 4 km's from our hotel, so we took a cab there and then decided to walk back. We walked past a massive military training base. It was interesting seeing all the military people training on horses! Quite cool and different if you ask me!!!

It was a still a bit overcast, but here is another picture of the Andes. 

Beautiful blue skies, white clouds, and lots of green! 

Walking back to the Hotel to change and go to lunch! This is what most of the streets look like. Well groomed, lots of tree's, and flowers.

For lunch we ate at a popular eatery called Domino. Chile is know for it's loaded hotdogs. They put just about anything on hotdogs and you know what, they're actually quite divine! Domino has some of the best Chilean hotdogs in the City. After I took this picture I got shouted at in Spanish by one of the servers. I guess they don't care for pictures in the restaurant.

I had to be sneaky taking the next few pictures. I can't remember what they called this hotdog... but its filled with tomatoes, an avocado spread, onions, and a tangy Chilean mayo. I needed a knife and fork to eat it!

So loaded!

Fruit juices are also really popular! We got fresh melon and lucuma juice to wash down the hotdogs. They were also very delicious.

There were no seats in the restaurant. They had a long counter top along the back of the restaurant with standing room only. Since I was scared to take pictures, a foot picture was the best I could do since I could hide the camera while taking it!

While walking to the metro to go back to Plaza de Armas, we came across these funky park benches.

This one was interesting. The artist had written on the bench "which is more comfortable?" in Spanish... Seems a bit of a dumb question if you ask me!

This was probably my favourite. Reese and I agreed it's supposed to be snot! ha ha

Clearly I don't understand what is written in Spanish on the bench.

I don't know how I missed this tree on Wednesday at Plaza de Armas. I thought it was pretty cool!

Taking a rest in the town square!

Reese and I first started realizing how many stray dogs there were in Santiago the first day we got here. They seem pretty placid and non-interested in anyone, so it's not scary walking past them. What Reese and I find funny is how they'll just plonk themselves anywhere to take a nap. We've seen them sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk, at the top of the stairs (right smack in the middle) of the metro, and right in the middle of the street. Like this guy:

We spent the rest of the day walking around. We actually had plans to go to the Pre-Columbian Museum but spent about 3 hours looking for it. It wasn't terrible because we would go into shops and got to see pretty much all of downtown. The funny thing is when we'd (when I say we, I mean Reese, since I don't speak Spanish) ask someone if they knew where it was they either didn't know or pointed us in a completely different direction than the previously asked person pointed us in. And when we finally did find the museum, it was closed for cleaning or repairs or something that day. Cool hey? Not! At least we got good exercise though, right?

By the time we got back to the hotel room, it was time for dinner! Reese has made a list of the best places to eat here, so we are going by that. Reese was feeling like steak, so we went to an Argentine restaurant. The menu was of course in Spanish, so Reese has to read off everything to me. He's been very patient so far when I get frustrated because I can't even choose food for myself. But after he read the menu off to me, I ordered a thin steak (thinking because it was thin, it would be small) with a side salad and Reese ordered a thicker steak with chips. His steak was around $14 USD and mine was only $12. With the bottled water and side dishes, our meal came up to $40 USD which I didn't think was bad considering the massive-ness of the meat. Nothing prepared us for what the waiter put on our table.

My steak is the long one. Thin? Compared to Reese's, maybe... But not what I was expecting. It was almost as wide and longer than my face. And Reese's was thick thick thick! I probably ate 1/8th of my steak. Reese was barely able to finish his. It all made sense why they keep the massive steaks over coals. You cut off a bit and leave the rest over the coals so it doesn't get cold. And they were soooo good! Like melt in your mouth good.  

That is definitely not my definition of a thin steak...

Wednesday's salad from day 1 was really divine! And so was my other salad. So I have come to the conclusion that veggies in Chile are just plain delicious. Don't get me started with the avo and tomatoes either! Reese's chips were also really good. They were made perfectly and tasted just as fresh!

The restaurant was called A La Lena:

A shot of us before we end the night!

For dessert we went to one of the MANY icecream shops in Santiago. Reese and I shared a banana split. it cost $7 USD and we couldn't even finish it. It tasted even better than it looked! We got dulce de leche, lucuma, and wait for it... NUTELLA icecream. Oh my word, it was so rich and divine.

I let Reese enjoy the first bite! :)



After dessert we went back to the hotel and Reese watched dubed over sitcoms while I started reading Catching Fire from The Hungar Games till we fell asleep! 

Stay tuned for day 3!