May 12: Some R&R

First I must begin by wishing my mom a happy Mother’s Day!  I hope your day was as good as mine!

Today was also a free day for us.  Most of the group decided to take it easy and just explore Viña del Mar a bit. 

Collin, Matt, and I decided to take a walk down to the mall, where we spent a good couple of hours exploring the stores.  We discovered that the clothing in the mall was nice quality but ridiculously expensive compared to the US.   It was difficult to find a normal t-shirt below $30.  This trend is a relatively recent thing, apparently, because the exchange rate used to be about 700 Chilean pesos per US dollar, and then the prices would have been more reasonable.  Still, because the prices have not changed, but the Chilean pesos are worth more, the same price in pesos is much more expensive in dollars now.

For lunch, we tried the McDonald’s in the mall to see how it compared to the US.  It was interesting to see that the food tasted almost exactly the same.  Apparently, McDonald’s standardizes its production globally.

Next we visited a white tent filled with artesian crafts and food and everything was buzzing with Mother’s Day fervor.  It was amazing to see how much care was put into the artwork while the pieces were only to be sold at a small price.  Here is a picture of the bustling market:

Afterwards, Hannah and I went to visit a Chilean Museum but unfortunately we misread the hours of operation and arrived too late.  Still, there were many interesting things outside, and we were especially excited to get a picture with an actual Moai Statue from Easter Island.  It did bother me, however, that the statue was taken from its homeland because for the Rapanui people of Easter Island, the statues represented their ancestors.  Here is a picture:

Finally, we were taken, very kindly, by Dr. Abad and Brice to an extremely fancy restaurant called Tierra de Fuego.  There we were allowed to choose from an incredible variety of amazing meals, of which I had a “Mafioso” steak.  It was great and it came with mashed potatoes.  Ultimately, though, the best part was talking with everyone about random topics like music, Disney movies, and ‘90s TV shows.  Here are some pictures: