Monday, March 14, 2011

More About Yesterday

I was too tired last night to give a full recap of the day's activities. I've got a couple minutes now to add some detail. Our city tour took us to a private horse racing club; Santa Lucia hill, a park where the city was founded more than 500 years ago (which happens to be across from our hotel); Plaza de Armas, where was stepped inside the Sanitago Cathedral and saw the city hall, post office, and Natural History Museum (all from the outside); la Moneda, the Presidental Palace where President Salvador Allende was killed in the 1973 coups d'etat; and the newer business district, Provedencia.

The city has some beautiful boulevards and is filled with universities - 61 private and 12 public. There seem to be university buildings everywhere. Another thing we noticed was the very large number of stray dogs. They seem very well behaved and don't look particularly malnourished or mangy, but they are everywhere (along with a few cats). As we walk in groups, they tend to follow us. The students have started naming them all. And sometimes the dogs just sleep on the sidewalks undistrubed by all the foot traffic.

Last night's journey was something else. More on that later, but for now I'll just say we had to walk down a 300 meter mountain in the dark, which took more than an hour. We ended up walking 3.92 miles to get to a metro station (after walking 1.4 miles to get too the park in the first place).

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