Chapter 1. Yo he llegado

After a quick flight north, a few hours in Canada, an angry Argentinian being arrested, a faulty valve being replaced, frost being cleaned off the wings, and somebody spilling red wine all over me while I tried to sleep, I finally arrived in Chile. I've been busy or exhausted every second of every day since, so this probably won't be especially long or poetic, but it is an excuse to post pictures. First thing I noticed when I got off the plane is that being dressed for Toronto is not the same as being dressed for Santiago. It's downright hot down here. I spent the next few days learning a little bit about the city with the other two guys in the program. This was the view from our hotel window.

This isn't an especially great view since it was pretty hazy, but those mountains are BIG. I'll never turn my back on the blue ridge, but those are freakin mountains.

The next day we went up to a park on top of one of the smallest mountains with an awesome view of the city. It was waaay to big for me to get everything in the picture, but heres a little sample.


This is one of the very developed parts of the city, which they call San Hatten. There's some parts especially on the edges that are pretty rough, but for Latin America it is very developed and very clean city

Immediately behind that picture is the giant statue of the Virgin that overlooks the city.

It shouldn't be sideways, but blogger is stupid. Save it and turn it the other way. I couldn't think of a better metaphor for Santiago than a 50 foot statue of the Virgin Mary with 20 cell phone towers right behind it. While walking around I saw that there were 3 couples making out behind the statue. It seemed a little disrespectful until I realized that its the only place in the city where Mary can't watch you.

This is one of the many street dogs in Santiago who spend the day chillaxing, or as they say in Spanish, chillaxando

This is a monument to the beginning of aviation in Chile in 1911. It is surrounded by dozens of couples making out near pornographically, as is the standard in every park in Chile
That's all I've got right now. More stuff later