el dia de las glorias navales

Today was el dia de las glorias navales (or Navy Day), a public holiday.  The best part for me was that Steve was home from work, so that meant a day to explore another part of the city.  We took the metro to el cerro Santa Lucia, which is an old fort turned into a park on a large hill in the middle of the city.  It seems much of the original fort is in tact (or at least has been preserved) since the 1800s, and there are lots of stairs to get around (which was not great for the stroller... again).  However, there were some gorgeous views from the top, and the view of the Andes over the city skyline was really impressive.

 Castillo Hildalgo on Santa Lucia Hill

The Andes, towering over the tallest building in South America.  Our hotel is actually very close to it.

Sadie having a ton of fun seeing all the sights.

Sadie passed out after a grueling walk up the hill. (Steve actually carried both Sadie and the stroller, thank goodness...)

I don't often get a chance to see Sadie in such a calm and stationary manner, so I enjoy it when I can get it!

Next, we walked over to Plaza de Armas, which was pretty disappointing only because it was under construction.  As in the entire plaza was completely fenced in by huge temporary scaffolding.  Too bad, so no pics.  The upside was that we found a fun place for Sadie to play in, HappyLand.

After HappyLand, we went to the Mercado Central, which is the world famous fish market.  Pretty impressive, but I didn't get any pics of the fresh fish.  Very crowded and the smell was... well... fishy, so naturally I let Steve go exploring while Sadie and I went to the center of the market where there are many restaurants and good ambiance.  If you are ever in Santiago, definitely a good stop.

Learning about general logistics

The past few days have been very informative, and it's crazy to think we have been here almost a week. This post is about what we are learning about every day necessities.

Grocery stores: There are plenty in the city - from small corner convenient type stores (one is called "Big John" and I keep wondering why they didn't just say "Juan Grande") to huge groceries (one even owned by Walmart called Lider).  The Jumbo is a huge chain that I'm frequenting that I would rival any grocery store in the states.  In addition, it is similar to Target, in that it has lots of household items, including clothes and baby stuff as well as electronics like TVs, but definitely less so.  The good news? They sell lots of chocolate.

Diapers:  Size G diapers in Pampers are size 4 in the states.  On the package they say G, but when you open them, they have the "4" on the back of the diaper just like in the US.  I was surprised to see this and wish they would have just put it on the package so I didn't have to convert Sadie's weight to kilos. What I'm still trying to find are night diapers... more to come on that.

Eating an early dinner with a toddler:  Everyone eats dinner here late, and restaurants typically don't even open until 8.  This is difficult when your child's bedtime is at 7 or 730.  The advice I have received and through our limited experience here are to frequent the restaurants in hotels since they are open all the time.  There are also quite a few cafes that sell salads, sandwiches and the like that are open for early dinner.  There are also apparently a lot of companies that do delivery options from a plethora of restaurants at all times of the day, but I haven't tried that yet.  Sounds like a good option!  Tonight we went to the restaurant in the W Hotel, called Coquinaria.  It was pretty good and great ambiance - Steve compared it to Kramer Books in DC with fewer books and more cooking supplies.

 

Hospitals:  While I haven't gone myself yet, I have heard by many that the best two are Clinica Las Condes and Clinica Alemana.  The latter of which someone said was Chile's Mayo Clinic.  Both are apparently world renown, but I'll judge for myself when I take the tours.  The best part about both are that there are specific departments dedicated to catering to international patients.  You simply email the address on the websites and within 24 hours someone gets back to you.  I have had this quick turnaround with both hospitals, and both places offering to help make appointments, find the right physicians who speak English, etc.  Clinica Alemana does charge a fee for this service, but Clinica Las Condes does not. So worth it when I'm not fluent in the language! 

Sadie's latest: Last night I noticed the 4 canines coming through (FINALLY!), so she has been a little cranky, poor girl.  However, she is starting to talk much more and recognize things and their names.  Her newest words are bus and bird (both mostly just b sounds), but she gets so excited when she sees them.  Best part of the day? When she demanded to eat peanut butter by the spoonfuls straight from the AlGood PB jar.  Yes, I spoil her.  She is in front of her favorite cabinet in the kitchen (that's empty), which she loves to climb in and out of and play peek a boo.  Pretty adorable.

La Vega

Today we braved La Vega, which, as far as I know, is Santiago's largest market, selling everything from fruits and veggies to chicken feet and squid to dish soap and toothpaste.  They also have a ton of little cafes and restaurants hidden among the stalls with sales people trying to corral you to the tables. It was very impressive.  We bought some bananas and strawberries, the former of which I'm pretty sure I got taken advantage of, and the latter of which the man was very honest and nice.  What was so crazy about the market was that the veggies had to be the largest I've ever seen.  The celery and green onions were especially huge, and I have to wonder why.  I took some pics to capture their enormity, but they don't do it justice. When my Spanish gets better I'll have to come shopping here for real because the prices are really good.

 

Mote con huesillos

Today we left our neighborhood and went to see some more of the city.  The big day trip was to a part of the city called Bellavista, which is where the Chilean University Law School is located.  The zoo is also there as well as a gorgeous statue of Santa Maria at San Cristobal hill.  To get there, we took the metro, which is pretty clean, easy to figure out, and efficient.  The problem was lack of elevators and the fact that we of course had a stroller in tow.  Boo to that let me tell you.

On the way from the metro to the hillside, we went over a bridge covered with little padlocks.  We had no idea what it was until we got back to the hotel and saw this on CNN (http://edition.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2014/05/16/pkg-foster-lovelocks-in-uk.cnn&hpt=hp_mid&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fedition.cnn.com%2F). Guess this is a thing I have never heard of, but is pretty timely.

To get to the top of San Cristobal hill you have to take a tram up a pretty steep hillside, and at the top there is a great view of the city (see pics below).  Again though, even after the tram, lots of steps + stroller = very annoying!  We should have brought a very cheap umbrella stroller or a baby backpack (neither of which are sold here under twice of what you would pay in the states as we learned today...)

 

On the tram up the hillside

 

Lots of trees and foliage, so it doesn't even look like we are in the middle of the city!

 

At the top, the city was difficult to see in the pictures (of course I left my camera in the hotel and had to use my phone)

 

Family pic

 

View from the top.  Note the layer of smog and you can barely see the Andes in the background.  This made me realize how huge Santiago really is.  It just kept going.

Last but not least, our treat of the day - mote con huesillos.  Everyone was selling them and drinking/eating them at the top, so we had to partake.  It looks completely disgusting, but it's actually sort of a dessert and not bad. Sadie loved it.  (It is basically a sweet peach-flavored drink with cooked oatmeal at the bottom.  The brain-looking thing is a full peeled peach with the pit still inside).

First play date :)

How lucky we are to have a network here in Chile.  Just two days after we arrived, Sadie and I had our first play date.  In the morning we met for coffee and amazingly delicious chocolate croissants at a great bakery that I don't remember the name, but I will definitely be finding it again soon, and then we walked around the city and found some parks.  Along the way, I got tons of good advice and great company.  Here is a pic of Sadie on a swing for the first time in Santiago.  I was pretty impressed by the parks and the fact that they have baby swings, Sadie's favorite :)

Then this afternoon we were able to see our old friends from Manitowoc who are here in Santiago.  They have a beautiful home in sort of a suburb of Santiago with a trampoline (Sadie loved it - wish I had a pic!) and huge yard. To top it off, their nana made some delicious authentic ahi de gallina for dinner, and we ate like royalty.  I've been pretty happy with the food here so far!

I need to start thinking in Spanish...

Today was a very eventful day, and I got to use my Spanish-speaking skills much more than yesterday.  Unfortunately it was pretty depressing to see how difficult communication is.  I'm very out of practice, but the Spanish here seems to be a little trickier than I'm used to.  I really need to brush up.

Top event from today.  We bought a high chair! (our third total high chair, which is ridiculous, but one is in transit here and the other one won't clamp to the table in our hotel without knocking the whole thing over... I don't know either), and with a 16 month old, a high chair is a complete necessity.  In fact, Sadie loves it so much that one of her favorite things is picking it up and moving it around her room and sitting in it.  Pretty adorable!

For those of you who are interested, we got the only high chair in the entire store (thank goodness it was pink!) and it wasn't as cheap as you would think...  I'm quickly learning that everything here seems to be on par with pricing in the states (or more).

The hardest part of the day was getting cell phones.  Because we don't have RUT numbers, which are basically Chilean identification numbers (kind of like social security numbers), we can't buy plans. So, we got prepaid cell phones (Samsungs with Android technology that we are used to thank goodness).  However, it took me a good 2 hours going to various places and talking to people figuring out how we needed to do it since it's very complicated.  I'm learning that things aren't straight forward like you would hope for in many ways, and it doesn't help that my Spanish is lacking.  For those of you ever moving to Chile, you have to buy a prepaid phone at a department store or electronic store, then go to the provider store to get that phone activated (and find out what the number of the phone is) then go to a pharmacy or grocery store to put minutes/data MBs on it.  Then, you can use it, but, it's again, not as cheap as you might expect.  One text is roughly 10 cents!  Guess I won't be doing that much anymore :(

Oh, one exciting thing I learned is that the peanut butter we bought was actually made in the US...

Bienvenidos a Santiago

After a very long flight from Houston to Santiago, we are here!  While the flight was tough at times with a 16 month old on an overnight flight, Sadie was such a trooper, and we were really lucky to get two rows to ourselves.  We did get her her own seat, which was a huge help and we brought her car seat on board, which also saved us a lot of hassle (even though lugging it around was a hassle, but worth it).  When we finally arrived, I was very pleased to find that Chileans are very good to families (those traveling with kids).  We completely skipped the long line at customs (twice - before and after you get your luggage) because there are special lines for families.  It was amazing.  Here is a pic of Sadie on the way from the airport to the hotel, just chillin like she knew she was in South America!

We are so lucky that the hotel we are staying at is in a great location, Las Condes.  It is a very nice area, and I told Steve that I'm surprised how clean it is and how there are no stray dogs.  Everything is very modern, and all the people very European.  Reminds me of Spain, actually.  And, thankfully, I knew how to buy the right kind of milk from my experience studying abroad there.  Leche entera for Sadie and descremada for mama.  Mostly, I was excited to see this on the shelf :)

I will close with a picture of all our bags.  Note to all, when traveling abroad, you don't always get 2 bags free per person for international flights.  Apparently it depends on your destination.  So, we completely overpacked and paid a hefty price!