Studying and Sight Seeing in Santiago

We are making progress in our class, and are very impressed with how far we have come in a couple weeks in school.  We are now hearing words we know in restaurants and sometimes can respond with the correct word to a simple question.  Stringing a whole sentence together?  That might take us months!  But, we are going to continue with class next week, so maybe a miracle will happen?

These streets and buildings are near our school.

Only the best ice cream in the world

We visited the Museo Nacional de Bella Artes.  The wooden crate at the front is a temporary art installation.

Afterward, we studied our Spanish lessons in a cute cafe nearby.

We can't get enough of this beautiful, warm weather.













The blurred photo below was snapped very quickly from our balcony.  We heard a commotion outside - cheering and hollering - and saw a city bus full of folks celebrating their team's victory in a soccer match.  Along with the streaming toilet paper, there are folks hanging out the open doors of the bus.  Chileans are mostly reserved folks, but they get hyped about soccer football.

We visited Cerro San Cristobal one afternoon after lunch.  The funicular is the only way to the top - unless you hike.  Yeah, right. Quacker Jack is ready to go!

Going up!

The view got progressively better as we climbed.

There are only two cars on the line, and they meet in the middle of the journey.

Arriving at the station

 Santiago just goes on and on...until it reaches the mountains.

Quacker Jack with Santiago behind him

 Cerro San Cristobal is where Pope John Paul gave mass in 1984.  There is a chapel at the top of the hill, which is open to the public and we *think* there might still be where services are held.

Virgin Mary sits atop Cerro San Cristobal

Along with lots of radio towers...see the one peaking in on the right side of the photo?

Although is was a very sunny day, there was a nice breeze that kept us from burning up.

  

I was excited to see hydrangeas at the funicular boarding area.  

Going down

We've found that Nescafe instant coffee is the coffee of choice in Santiago (photo on the right).  Fortunately, we've found at least one cafe whose motto is "You deserve good coffee" (photo on the left).  Yes we do, my friends, yes we do.