My Walking... or rather... Limping tour

Given the limited use of my extrenities, today´s planned walking tour became a limping tour around Santiago´s city center. Guided by my trusty Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring book, I embarked on a 3km limp to see the major sights before leaving for Valparaiso tomorrow.

First a residual word on my ski adventure. I don´t think I mentioned that I lugged an old pair of ski boots, backpack and ski suit down here with the intention of jettisoning the extra weight after my ski endevour. With the memory of my ill-fated skitrip and residual ache in my leg, I couldn´t be happier to get rid of the excess baggage. I dropped it off on the corner near my hostal with a poor lady who was sleeping on the street. She was ecstatic. Funny thing though, that 80´s dayglo ski suit used to fit me well. A little loose in the shoulders and plenty of room in the crotch. Yesterday, it was quite tight and smelling a little non-too-fresh after 5 or so years in dry dock. Maybe the reason is doesn´t fit so well anymore is my massive upper body development. Here´s a picture of me, but keep in mind I´ve just come back from the gym, so I´m a little pumped up.

I´m taking a page from the book of Hans entitled, ¨have limp will travel.¨ On the first leg of the limping tour (pun intended) I hit the Biblioteca National first for a Cafe con Leche or Cortado as they call them here.



Built in 1924 it was really quite striking. Next stop was a little arts and crafts side street which was fun. If i had better taste in those things (and maybe a little color vision) I could have really scored cool stuff. Next I hit the Cerro Santa Lucia, a park in the center town. Here´s a couple shots.


And further up.


Climbing all those stairs was a little rough, being a gimp and all, but the view at the top of the mountains that almost maimed me made it all worth while.

Here´s another shot of fountain on the way down


Next stop was the Museo de Bellas Artes. Here´s a shot from the outside

And from the inside

They had some pretty cool stuff, not the old masters of the louve or madrid but some interesting expositions. Doodling around from there I hit the stock exchange and tooled around aimlessly like I had nowhere to go (which I don´t which is what makes me so cool.)

The Spianish here is VERY different. They speak in a sing-song like voice running all the words and syllables together making it REALLY hard to figure out what they´re saying. Spainish comprehension has never been my strong suit but usually I can get by. Some people are harder to understand then others, but when its bad its like talking to a drunk low-talker. I ran into a guy in an internet cafe from Mexico that lives here now. He says it took him 3 months to get used to the speech. Its that much different.

I bought my tickets today for Valparaiso and Buenos Aires, reserved a room in a hostal and generally just meandered around. Tomorrow, Valparaiso for two days and on to Buenos Aires. From there who knows where my limp will take me.