May 5: Arrival and the Beauty of Viña del Mar

This morning I awoke on the plane to the amazing sight of the sun rising over the Andes Mountains.  The beauty coalesced as we began to descend and wisps of fog created an eerie yet serene veil over the landscape.  I would have taken a picture for you but my neighbor, who was at the window seat, was having a very emotional moment upon her return to her home country.  Upon landing, we headed into the airport, paid our reciprocation fee, and passed through customs, which took all of 30 minutes.  We then met Dr. Abad and two Chilean students who will continue to guide us throughout the trip, Tomas and Marcelo.  They spoke to us for awhile about their own travel experiences and life as Chilean engineering students.  At the same time, we waited in line for a ridiculously long time in order to exchange money at the ATM.  It was interesting to learn the Chile:US conversion.  475 Pesos is equal to 1 US dollar, though Chile uses the same dollar sign as the US, which confused some of us.  Also, in Chile, a period takes the place of a comma so that added to the confusion.  Ultimately, after we all successfully transferred pesos, we boarded a bus and headed to Viña del Mar from the airport in Santiago.  Many of us passed out easily on the 2 hour ride, though I managed to remain awake.  Finally, we reached our hotel, Hotel America, a small, cozy inn-like building.  My roommates for the trip are Collin and Jeff, and I believe we’ll get along well.  I felt relieved after having the chance to shower and shave, though somehow we managed to flood our bathroom slightly and leak some water onto the carpet.  After we all refreshed ourselves, we headed out for a big lunch at Tiki Taco, which had amazing food of all sorts, from quesadillas and enchiladas, to my own salmon margarita with golden potatoes.  We all bonded over Disney songs, NPR shows, and strange stories from high school.  After we finally finished our lunch (which ended up lasting over 2 hours), we made our way through the streets of Viña del Mar with Dr. Abad as our guide.  Here I have some pictures about what we encountered.  Firstly, here is a picture of a winery that we drove past on our way to Viña del Mar:

Next is a photo of the beach:

Here is a crazy optically-screwy photo of the escalators in the mall:

And finally, a photo of the street mime/amateur crossing guard who entertained us so light-heartedly:

I don't know what possessed him to do this but it's going on the blog.  The boardwalk itself was lined with handcraft stalls, food carts, tarot card readers, sand artwork, and people dressed as different characters.  The highlight of many of our night's was a run-in with an incredible Captain Jack Sparrow-lookalike.  We couldn't believe what we were seeing.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that but others do, and I would suggest checking it out.  Finally, we returned to the hotel, fairly exhausted but excited to truly begin our adventure on the morrow.  I'll leave you with this touching photo of a rock on which it is written "Sonreir es gratis", or in English: "To smile is free":