Mas Santiago

Hey amigos, I hope that your weekend was great and Monday thus far is a good one.

I am sitting in an internet cafe, baking in the 90 degree heat of Buenos Aires. I imagine it is a bit colder in the northern hemisphere these days...

In any case, I will be sure to post regarding the week spent in Argentina, but first need to finish my trip to Santiago for Pato and Alice's wedding.

The first full day in the city was a whirlwind, which included a trip to La Moneda, followed by some sightseeing from the top of a hill that affords views of downtown Santiago, which suffers from pretty bad pollution, though you can still make out ¨La Cordillera¨ or Andes Mountains in the background.

Following our lunch at the fish market and on our way to Pablo Neruda´s house, we passed by an area, Andres Bello I believe, with lots of outdoor cafes and restaurants. Just thought I would snap a photo of one of them, as it provides a nice contrast with the smoggy cityview. The trees with the purple flowers were ever present in the city and seem to abound in Buenos Aires as well. I am not sure what they are called.

Below are a few photos of the entrance of Neruda's house in Santiago, called ¨La Chascona,¨ named after his mistress, who later became his wife. By the way, for those of you who maybe were not Spanish Lit. majors, Neruda was one of the great Chilean poets, a Nobel laureate and, at one time, head of the Communist party in Chile. When Pinochet came to power, Neruda was expelled and went to live in Capri, Italy. Maybe some of you have seen the movie, Il Postino, which references Neruda´s time in Italy.

After returning to the hotel later in the afternoon, I met up with Quentin Knights, my first boss during my first job out of college. Over the years, we have kept in contact and he has been kind enough to write me various letters of recommendation and act as a reference for language school, business school and a few different jobs. Quentin now lives in Miami, and, during my seven hour layover, I thought to call him if only to say that I was in the 'hood. Turns out that by chance he was in Santiago, and thus we ended up meeting for a coffee.

And, of course, no post would be a good post without a few food photos. With that in mind, here are some shots of our Thanksgiving dinner in Santiago, celebrated with 20 or so of my closest acquaintances from business school. In true American style, there was turkey with all of the trimmings, though somehow it wasn't the same. And the pumpkin pie, though it looks rather gourmet, was missing all of the key spices.