We grabbed lunch after our climb, and I had an empanada pino, which is the traditional kind of empanada with onion, egg, and olive wrapped in dough and either fried or baked in the oven. It was tasty! Bailey and I then walked along the street Miraflores to the Bellas Artes museum. Inside the art museum, we saw beautiful sculptures of angels and a few depictions of the Stations of the Cross, Jesus's final moments.
My favorite exhibition was a photography collection from 2010. The photographer traveled to a small Chilean town that prides itself on being uniquely and completely Chilean. The pictures showed the very old and the very young selling their fruit and vegetables on the streets. There were pictures of the brightly colored homes with dirt up to the doorsteps and peeling paint, muddy street carts, and walls covered in bright and political graffiti. The pictures also showed that stray dogs were as much a part of the town as the Chilean townspeople. I must agree that these pictures very much represented Chilean lifestyle and culture. I wish I could have put all of these pictures into a book and taken them with me, because this is the Chile that I will see when I remember Santiago and Valparaiso.
After the art museum, Bailey and I headed back to Carlos's house. I tried to talk with his mom, but it was very difficult as she speaks quickly and runs all of hers words together. I asked her to speak slowly and explained to her that it's been four years since I've used my Spanish, but she seemed to just brush me off and dismiss me as incompetent. I am getting frustrated with this Spanish speaking thing... some days are better than others. Sometimes I understand quite a bit, and others I just can't seem to comprehend and decipher what people are saying. I hope that when Bailey and I return to Santiago I will be able to talk to Carlos's mom better.
Bailey and I grabbed all of our things and jumped on the metro to get to the bus station. The metro train took forever, and we made our bus by two minutes. Now we are sitting on a twelve-hour overnight bus to Puerto Varas in the southern region, also called Los Lagos (the lake region). We wil spend the next day and night in Puerto Varas, and then head to Cliffs the next morning. I am so excited, but a little nervous about this twelve-hour bus ride... right now they are showing the movie Perseus in Spanish with Spanish subtitles, so I am listening and reading and learning.
Words of the Day:
Colina rocosa - rocky hill
Palta - avocado
Acetuna - olive
Monja- nun
(there are probably more but it's hard to keep track of all of them)
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