Day 2 (5/5/13)-Arrival Day

Today, after a ten hour flight, we finally arrived in Santiago, Chile! The flight did not seem too long but was very uncomfortable! We were served beef and mashed potatoes for dinner and got a croissant and yogurt for breakfast. After we finally got off of the cramped plane, we payed our $160 entrance fee into Chile and went through customs. Then we were greeted by Jorge and two Chilean students who were very friendly and excited to have us. After we withdrew our money in Chilean pesos, we boarded the bus for our hotel in Vina del Mar! The bus ride only took about an hour and a half and we finally made it to Hotel America.

The room me and Brendan share is much nicer than we were expecting and the bathroom is pretty big. Once we all got settled and showered we went out to eat lunch at a local restaurant called Tiki Taco Bar. I got chimichangas and they were awesome! A lot of us ordered our first (legal) alcoholic drink and the whole meal took a lot longer than any meal I have eaten in the U.S.. We arrived at the restaurant around 1:30 and didn't leave until almost 5:30! It was great to be able to just sit back and relax after a very long period of traveling.

After we finished our meal we walked through the park and up to the ocean. The views were incredible and there were so many people out walking! We walked past vendors, street performers, puppet shows, and a local mall. It was awesome to see how many of the citizens here spend their free time and to get to interact with some of them. Even though I have zero experience speaking Spanish, being around everyone who does has made me pick up a few things already! We are all currently sitting in the front room of Hotel America writing our blog entries and most of us are pretty exhausted. Nonetheless, we will probably go out soon and explore some more! Tomorrow we are visiting the local university.