I have a lot of thoughts about this trip that aren’t enough for an entire blog post, so I’m gonna say all them here.

There are dogs everywhere. I know they are stray and this isn’t a good thing but I like it.

This dog took a break from the hot day at Plaza de Armas.

They eat dinner really late here. Like 9. I don’t really know why.

The Pacific Ocean is really really painfully cold.

Don’t be fooled, this water is ice-cold. Also look at all the mayo on the sandwhich.

The street performers are really talented.

Empanadas are amazing and everywhere. Big fan.

They listen to American music and watch American movies. I feel like it’s hard to not feel an American presence everywhere.

Monte con huesillo is a drink type thing with a liquid that tastes like sweet tea, some mangos, and some sort of grain in the bottom. It’s very good and pretty cheap.

This is the amazing treat.

There’s way less red brick here. I also just realized how much I like red brick buildings.

Everyone seems more relaxed here than American cities. For example, in the Plaza de Armas, everyone was just sitting on benches enjoying the weather.

The weather here is amazing. I’ve eaten outside everyday so far. I only do that about twice a year at home.

Pablo Neruda has an amazing house. It doesn’t seem like much from the outside, but the views are amazing.

This is my sketch of the view from Neruda’s dining room.

There aren’t many bugs. I’ve seen bees but that’s it. I also haven’t seen roaches, rats, or mice.

Finally, the mountains are amazing.

Two things I didn’t think would be so involved in my day, mayonnaise and prostitutes.

Let’s start with the first one. This country loves mayonnaise. A lot. The first meal I had in Chile came with fries. The fries, or “papas fritas” if you feel like butchering the language like I have been, came with mayonnaise to dip in. I was vaguely aware that some countries did this (thanks to Pulp Fiction), and figured that Chile was simply one of the countries who liked a little mayo with their fries. Little did I know. My next meal was a sandwich. On this sandwich was meat, avocado, tomato, and mayonnaise. A lot of mayonnaise. Like half a jar of mayonnaise. I thought it was some sort of queso sauce at first. After doing my best to eat my surprisingly good meal, I had a pool of mayonnaise collected on the plate. After noticing this, I became very aware that almost all advertisements for restaurants include a picture of a sandwich with a large amount of mayonnaise. This isn’t the biggest culture difference I’ve noticed, just the most suprising.

Now the other part of my day I wasn’t expecting. We spent a warm Sunday afternoon in the town square, La Plaza de Armas. In the square was what you would expect in a big city. There were street performers, children playing, people eating ice cream, musicians, a fountain and some prostitutes. The prostitutes were hanging around in full view of the family as well as the police. Now I am not surprised Santiago, along with every city, has prostitutes. I was surprised at them being in the open town square at Sunday at 2 pm. I’m not even really sure what conclusions to draw from that.