Antarctica: Santiago!

Well, we are finally finishing our posts for our Antarctica trip. Our last stop was Santiago!!! Well we actually disembarked the ship in Valparaiso, but we didn't spend any time there. The disembarkation process was poorly organized (which surprised me a little, as they do it every week...) and we didn't get off until about 1-2 hours after we were scheduled. This wasn't a problem for us, but the Rollins family had a flight to catch. So anyway, we said our good byes quickly while installing car seats in the cars Zac had pre-reserved and we went our separate ways (the same way actually, but we didn't see each other anymore). It was a really great cruise and we really really enjoyed having Zac, Bran, and Nuala with us (Fiona too, I guess...). It made the whole trip a lot more fun, especially for the kids. The car ride from Valparaiso to Santiago was just a little over an hour.

When we arrived at our hotel, we checked in and decided to do nothing for the afternoon. Crazy huh? It didn't last long though. Julie tried to put Jack down for a nap, I took the kids out to the pool, and Bubba went for a short walk around Santiago near our hotel. Jack wouldn't fall asleep (There was no crib or playpen at this hotel and Jack LOVED the freedom of the bed...) so when Bubba returned, Julie and Jack went with her for a second walk. I stayed with Jonah and Paige at the pool. The water was really cold, so I kinda drew the short straw.

After they got back we decided to go for a short walk to find dinner. This was the only time my personal Google maps I created let me down. I wanted to find the Mercado Central, which is a big fish market, and I had it in totally the wrong place. We did find a really cool old church (that I didn't have on my to see list).

So after a long walk to nowhere, we stopped back by our hotel and asked for a recommendation for something close. They sent us to a nice Italian restaurant that was close by. It was great for the kids, and us too. The food was good. Here is Jack in his final South American high chair. These were so varying in quality (if there even was one at all), but this was a cute one. Plus, Jack looks cute with his napkin tucked in!!!

After dinner we went a few blocks further to the Plaza de Armas. The plaza was similar to many other plazas we have seen on this trip. It was really cool, but even I was starting to get burnt out on looking at older buildings, so we focused our attention on the fountain in the center where some other kids were playing and chasing pigeons. We actually completely let go and let the kids play in the water. Jack loved it. Look at the series of pictures below to see what happened.

Yep, I had to carry him back to the hotel on my back. It was nice!!! Here are Paige and Jonah playing by the fountain and with the pigeons.

This pretty much wiped everyone out and we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. I did, as you can imagine, have way too many buildings and parks to see the next day...

Paige slept in Bubba's room, which she did often during the entire trip. It was really nice to have Bubba with us, for many reasons, but this one also! So after breakfast we headed out again. We walked a lot but made it to everywhere on my list. First we went by the Plaza de La Moneda, then we found the Iglesia de San Francisco, which was built in the 1620's. It was the oldest building in Santiago. Here is a picture from the inside.

There were stray dogs all over Santiago, but especially near the Plaza de La Moneda.

Next we found the Teatro Municipal, but didn't stop to check it out; we had a schedule to keep. Actually I thought we were making great time and would have lots of time in the afternoon to just let the kids play. I was wrong...

After this we found our great American Idol (not the TV show):

I had actually not had any coffee the entire trip. I was trying to cut down on how much I was drinking (basically all day at work), and decided before we left that I would not have any while we were on vacation as a way to change the habit. However, when we found Starbucks, I had to have a latte. You see I have this thing with McDonald's and Starbucks. Really, it is two different things. I never eat McDonald's in the states (our kids don't even know about McDonald's...), but I like to have both McDonald's and Starbucks in as many different countries as possible. Weird, huh? We didn't eat at McDonald's the entire trip, even though they had them in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Santiago. But we did have a coffee at Starbucks.

Don't worry Jack is just having soy foam as he can't have milk and especially not coffee.

After our coffees we went and explored Cerro Santa Lucia. This was one of the best places in Santiago. Basically, it was a hill where some of the original city was built around and where look outs were built to guard the city. Now it is a park, with lots of fountains, a small church, and great views of the city below. Julie and Bubba were totally freaked out about the lack of railings leading up to some (most) of the look outs, but Paige, Jonah, and I loved it. We took this weird elevator a little way up. It didn't get you very far, but it was the first entrance we saw.

These are some of the views from higher up. Santiago is a really beautiful city.

The last picture is actually looking across to the other hill in Santiago, which is called Cerro San Cristobal. I will talk about that in a little bit. We haven't even had lunch yet. Here are some more photos from up on Cerro Santo Lucia. Notice the lack of handrails in places going up to the top. You can kinda understand why Julie and Bubba were nervous, especially with Jonah (monkey) on the lose.

Finally, we made it back down and out on the other side. No funny elevator needed...

Next we headed for lunch. After asking for directions (not easy for us to do in Spanish), we found the Mercado Central. It was nice, but very similar to the Pike Place Market that we we have in Seattle. I guess we are spoiled to have our market, as this was one place many of my friends from Brazil insisted we not miss. Unfortunately it was cold and drafty in the market so we didn't look around much. We ate and headed out.

After lunch we headed over to the Parque Forestal, which is a nice long narrow park that runs between the city and one of the main roads out of Santiago. We found a nice little playground and just let the kids play for about an hour.

Yep Jonah, climbed right down into that. He actually managed to climb back out, but it made a great photo.


Our final stop before going back to our hotel and heading to the airport was the Cerro San Cristobal. This is part of a huge park. They have public pools, a zoo, play areas, and lots more in the park. We didn't have much time left though, and I basically made everyone go there because I wanted to find at least one geocache in Santiago before heading home. So we took the Funicular up to the top of the hill. Here is a view looking back down as we were heading up.

At the top their was a large Virgin Mary statue. We didn't really check it out, it was getting late and I had to find a cache which was still over a mile walk away.

Once we found it and made it back to the Funicular it was starting to cloud up and lightly rain. Plus it was starting to get dark, so the view was gone. I think it would have been better than the Cerro Santa Lucia, as it was higher up.

I forgot to mention that much like the chairlift in Ushuaia, Julie had a fear of the Funicular. Here is everyone huddle in it sitting down, so they don't have to see down the steep hill we were about to back down.

Once we got down we got a taxi back to the hotel. It was getting really late, and we didn't have time for dinner, so we went to a small convenience store that had hot food and a couple of small tables to sit at and ate. It was actually pretty good. When our car showed up, only one came, but the driver assured us we could all fit. I thought that was great as it saved me some money. Here is a picture of everyone else all in the back seat. This wasn't a big car either. Jack is king!!!


Finally, we made it to the airport, through ticketing and customs and out to our gate. There was a small play area in the terminal so the kids were able to play a little more before sitting for 15 hours on planes. When our plane arrived, Jonah wanted to see it from the window but the bars blocked the view, so we had to look under them.

So that is the end of our trip. It has already been two months since we got home, but it is still really fresh in our minds. It was a truly wonderful trip. I won't say once in a lifetime, because I plan to repeat it or at least something similar. South America is great and there is still sooo much more of it to see. And Antarctica, well pictures and blogs can't do it justice. It was a truly incredible place, we definitely need to go back, and this time really explore!!!