Bingo AndesMar

After Mendoza we set out on what we thought would be a 5-6 hour bus ride to Santiago, Chile. I had vowed not to eat any more bandejas (trays of disgusting bus food), so I was only armed with a few medialunas (croissants) as we left the station at 7:30 am. Of course, there happened to be a bike race through the Andes mountains that day so we were stuck behind slow bikers until the border of Chile, making our trip 9 hours instead. The day before, as trucks sped by me on my little antique nellie, I had sympathized with bikers in general and promised myself I would feel less annoyed when they got in my way when driving through the city. This general good will towards bikers was completely destroyed on this trip and I found myself wishing we could just plow through them in the name of punctuality. It didn't help that the air conditioning stopped working half way there. 

After a gorgeous climb through the Andes (I could have hiked if faster), we passed the cyclists and started our descent into Chile. This photo doesn't do it justice. You literally couldn't see the edge of the road, just the abyss beneath. I held pete's hand, so he wasn't scared...
Santiago was worth the trip, however. Pete found us a cute hotel on Calle  Londres, a little cobblestone street set back from the center of the city. 
One of the guys we met on our bikes and wine tour told us that Chile was obsessed with hot dogs with avocado and saurkraut. These were the first ones we tried and loved them. We had them the next day too, successfully satiating any hot dog craving we might have within the next 4 or 5 years. 

 (the girl in the background of the picture was less than amused by our picture taking)

In order to see the entire city of Santiago you can take the 'funicular', this little train that gets pulled by cables up what feels like an 80 degree climb (again, the picture doesn't show this at all). The view was amazing and once up, you can ride in cable cars between the mountains to see more. 

I look like a scared turtle on drugs in this picture

Valparaíso & Viña del Mar

After Santiago, we went to Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, which are right on the Pacific and 5 minutes from each other. Apparently Valparaíso gets very few cloudy days, but we happened to be there on one of them. Though I had forced everyone to slather themselves in sunscreen for a day of tanning on the beach, we ended up spending most of the day walking around Viña because it was too cold. Viña happened to be having their yearly music festival so there were hordes of people waiting outside the hotel near the casino for no less than...Marc Anthony. I'm not sure what the appeal of this emaciated little leprechaun is, but everyone was waiting with bated breath. David and Pete kept threatening to yell, "There he is!!! Marc Anthony!!!!", but I truly feared we would be arrested for this crime.

I happened upon this market while we were walking around and thought it might be another good training exercise for David to go shopping with a girl. Bless his heart. He just walked around, looking lost, while I tried on earrings. I got this candid picture of him that pretty much sums it up...

On our bus ride back to Mendoza, we got to ride first class again and we were treated to a game of "Bingo AndesMar" (AndesMar being the bus company). I was SURE I was going to win, but look who ended up winning the AndesMar keychain...