Welcome to Santiago!

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been up to update my blog lately because I've been really busy with meetings and engineering tours at Chile. I apologize for all grammar and spelling errors. Hopefully I have a chance to update more often in the future. We all arrived at Chile on August 4 and I could probably sum up my first day with one, word. COLD! You know when you just get off the airplane and you have to go through a walkway to the terminal. While you walk through you could still feel the weather outside. The second I walked off the plane I felt the cold air from outside. However, in this case the cold air was everywhere in the airport. The airport's heating system was damaged by the 8.8 earthquake so it was super cold inside. It also didn't help that we arrived at 2:00 in the morning. Evidence of the earthquake is also evident with the lack of insulation and roofing materials in the airport. The seasons in Chile is flipped from the United States. Right now is winter and their summer is during our winter. Whenever I thought about South America I would imagine a really hot place and humidity. Chile actually gets really cold especially since it is right next to the Andes. You can see the snow on the mountains right next to the city of Santiago.

The city of Santiago itself is actually a really modern city. It looks like any other major city in the United States. There are a lot of tall towers and also some nice historic buildings. One thing that Santiago has that I wish more cities in California would have are pedestrian streets. There is a main street in the city that is dedicated just for pedestrians where a lot of the big stores are located. There is also a really good and cheap metro system in the city. It costs around 500 pesos (around 1 U.S dollar) depending on the time of day for entry wherever you want to go. As opposed to Bart where you have to pay depending on where you are going. The Metro takes you almost wherever you want to go within a block or so. The only problem though is that there are a lot of people and it could get crowded at times. However, a train is always coming in and out the station often ( I don't remember having to wait for a train longer than 2 min.). Most people use the metro because there is a cost to driving around the city and parking is really available. I have yet to see a parking structure in the city.

The food does not really compare to Peruvian food. The cuisine is heavily dependent on meat. One meal that a lot of people get is called a completo which is pretty much a hot dog covered with mayonnaise and avocado. There are all kinds of hot dogs such as Italianos and Mexicanos which just describes the topping they put on the hot dog. One night I got a hot dog that was a foot long covered in avocado and mayonaisse and hot sauce... It was only good for the first 4 inches haha.They also have something called the Chorillana which is pretty much their version of Carne Asada fries. It is french fries covered with eggs, assorted meat, onions and other cholesterol cloggers. In an attempt to eat a little healthier I just buy vegetables from the market and make a stir fry with oyster sauce. One of my friends even taught me how to cook arroz caldo which is just rice mush. To sum it all up, Chilean food is pretty much bread, rice or french fries with some sort of meat and onions all ranging from $6-$10 depending on what kind of meat you get. For all you drinkers out there a bottle of wine is as low 3 U.S dollars and a liter of beer is around 1.50 U.S dollars. Also, they have empanadas which costs around a dollar and I've been eating for breakfast or lunch. Empanadas here are really big and they are like sandwich replacements. I recommend an empanada de pino (chopped meat and onions).

That's pretty much Santiago, it's not as cultural as Peru is but it is very advanced in comparison. I've never been to Europe but a lot of people have told me Santiago has a European feel to it. A lot of people would probably have fun skiing in the Andes or walking around the hundreds of trendy shops that I saw. Chile is also supposedly really known for its wine so a lot of you might be interested in wine tasting. The next couple of posts will be dedicated to summing up my engineering meetings and tours. Its been pretty cool meeting with a lot of different professionals and going through earthquake sites.

Hope you are all doing well! Try to leave comments if you can.

-Jason