We spent the rest of the week exploring more areas of Santiago.
On Wednesday, I took the kids on the Metro to Santa Lucia, which is a picturesque park on a very high hill, overlooking the city. The biggest challenge was navigating the stroller to the summit. I used my charades skills to figure out an "alternative" entrance to the park that didn't involve hundreds of stairs. We ended up ditching the stroller and taking stairs to the final summit, where the boys explored the castles, cannons and the local ice cream stand.
The park is the location where Pedro de Valdivia, the Spanish conqueror of Chile, first founded Santiago in 1540. It wasn't until the 1870's, when 150 prisoners landscaped the many pathways and gardens traversing the area, when the park really became an attraction for the public. The cobblestone, winding staircases, beautiful buildings and landscaped gardens are gorgeous.
It turns out that there is also an artisan market, which I stumbled upon as I made my way to the next Metro station with elevator access. I bought the boys matching Chilean draw-string pants, which made them look like little hippy children.
A note about dogs in Chile: Despite Chile's cosmopolitan/modern nature, there are stray dogs everywhere. But, unlike other areas of the world, the strays are often thoroughbred dogs - Irish Setters, Boarder Collies, Golden Retrievers, etc. The dogs sleep in the most precarious places - on busy street corners, in gardens in high-end malls, on the boulevards in the middle of busy thoroughfares, etc. At the same time, people take great pride in their "official" dogs. You see wealthy women with their little dogs wearing fancy dog outfits and other high-end dogs like German Shepherds running with their owners on the beach. It is a strange class division for dogs.
Thursday was a relatively low-key day - Jeremy was in a planning session all day, which was followed by a dinner, so the boys and I had each other to ourselves . We had a blast exploring the Parco, the pool and the mall entertainment, ending with room service for dinner. It was wonderful!
On Friday, the official Spanish lessons began. I met Catalina (friend of a friend) in the bohemian area of Barro Bellavista at 10 AM, and we spent four hours learning and practicing Spanish - asking for directions, shopping and ordering food. We also made an attempt to visit Pablo Neruda's Santiago house, but had to abandon the plan after William had a "moment" (i.e., completely refused to go on the tour because he was too tired and wanted to ride in the stroller, which certainly is not compatible with touring a poet's house). He was irrational and inconsolable. It was ugly. Fortunately, the lovely people at the house agreed to allow me to use my ticket another day. Hopefully I can make it back there and convince the boys to do the tour.
Catalina babysat for us on Friday night. Jeremy and I went out to a wonderful Peruvian restaurant, "Astrid y Gaston", which was absolutely fabulous. It was fabulous in part because the food and atmosphere were very fancy, but more fabulous because it was just the two of us!
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