Bienvenidos a Chile!

The 10 hour plane ride to Santiago was rough, literally. The plane experienced a lot of turbulence during the flight. That along with the loud engine and limited personal space resulted in a restless night of sleep. I was awakened by the Chilean man to my right who had kindly had the flight attendant leave me a tray of breakfast. As I ate my surprisingly delicious croissant, I gazed out of the window as we began our descent to the Santiago airport. The view was amazing! You could see every peak and valley of the majestic Andes mountains, with small farming towns in the valleys. We landed smoothly, made our way through immigration and customs and finally took our first steps into Chile. As we waited for our bus to take us to our hotel, we got to meet two Chilean students from Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria: Marcello and Tomas. Both of them have travelled abroad to many countries and can speak at least three languages! We did not get to speak to them for very long before our bus arrived.

Everyone was feeling tired after that plane ride and all enjoyed a nice siesta during the 2 hour bus ride our temporary residence for the next two weeks: Hotel America.

Hotel America is a cute little hotel on the outskirts of bustling and busy center of Vina del Mar. I believe Hotel America gives me a good perspective on how the Chileans in this part of the country live.

Later on, Jorge and Brice showed us around Vina del Mar. We ate our almuerzo at a Mexican restaurant called Tiki Taco. La comida es muy delicioso! I'm excited to try other restaurants around the city. We walked through a little park and all the way along the shoreline and the beach. What goes on in the city can really tell you a lot about the Chileans here in general. The atmosphere in the city is very laid back and relaxing, just like the Chilean citizens. I also read online that Chileans are typically more conservative, and I think the fences and gates around most of the houses, apartment buildings and hotels kind of conveys that. It was fun to walk through the line of vendors along the beach and see what they were selling. My favorite part was probably when the street performers came up to us, especially the clown and a Jack Sparrow impersonator!

Well we're about to make a group trip to the local supermarket. This first day was already amazing, and I can't wait to see what the rest of the trip will be like! Hasta manana!