Two months in Santiago, Chile.

Kim standing below the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepcion

Kim in Parque Forestal for our yoga class.

Ricardo leading yoga class

Last Sunday, Mother's Day, we went to Parque Forestal for an outdoor yoga and relaxation class that the city gives free of charge for three consecutive Sundays.  We arrived only to find that we were the only two participating who were under the age of 55.  It was more like glorified stretching than yoga but we enjoyed it nonetheless.  The class turned out to be more beneficial to our learning Spanish than to our physique; we now have the words vuelve (this has nothing to do with the female anatomy), eso es, and arriba committed to memory.  It was really nice to see people who happened to be strolling by on a Sunday morning take time from their day to participate in the class for a several minutes and then simply move on.  

An exhibit in Museo de Artes Visuales.

A group of dancers we passed on Dia De La Musica!

Following yoga, we decided to go to Museo de Artes Visuales, solely because it's free to the public on Sundays.  Good thing, because if we paid we wouldn't have been very happy.  The only exhibit to catch my interest was what looked like a city but was made out of white, computer paper, and stood about waist high.  On our way to the Museum we stumbled upon a group of musicians and dancers who were celebrating "Dia De La Musica" and we got a free dance show in the street!

Sunday night we had our first of four salsa lessons!  We heard about it from some friends and we were under the impression that we were headed to a Salsatecha for some drinks amidst dancing, but we ended up in an actual dance studio with a certified teacher.  It was awesome, although much to our dismay, Chileans do not have that internal Latin rhythm that we anticipated.  Classes are every Sunday night for 4 weeks and we can't wait for the next.

View from the top of Cerro San Cristobal.

After class on Monday we headed straight for Cerro San Cristobal.  The park is Santiago's biggest green space and atop it stands a 14- meter high statue of the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepcion.  It took us close to two hours to hike to the top but it was well worth it because it has the best views in the city.  On the way down we hopped on the funicular which got us back to the ground in 4 minutes!  On our walk home we stopped at Patio Bellavista which is a big courtyard made up of upscale restaurants, artsy coffee shops, and all types of little shops and boutiques.  We had a couple drinks, did our homework as well as some serious people watching.  

A very small part of Patio Bellavista

Last night we went to Language Roulette which is always a good opportunity to meet new people, practice Spanish and help others practice English.  It's been nice getting in a routine here - Spanish classes in the morning, mini field trips afterwards, Language Roulette on Thursdays, Salsa dancing on Fridays, and our salsa classes on Sunday nights...always something to look forward to!

Today is Friday!  It's a beautiful day in Santiago!  We had a great day at class today.  Kim and I both had to do a presentation, which was the equivalent to something we've done in third grade, but this time it was in Spanish.  According to our professor we did great!  We're getting ready to head to our rooftop, watch the sun go down and do some dancing tonight!  Tomorrow we'll be heading to Valparaiso, a little city on the coast of Chile with our friend Scott for the day.  

And for now...eso es!    

A band performing in the street on Dia De La Musica.

Coming down Cerro San Cristobal on the funicular