Santiago

Friday was our day to tour around Santiago. However, the adventures of the previous days had tired us out, so we spend the morning and part of the afternoon lounging around and napping. In the afternoon, we decided to finally go to the center of Santiago to look at some historical buildings. Our attempt to visit the Museum of History was futile since it was closed to renovations. After surveying the main plaza, we went inside the main cathedral. I have definitely seen many of them, but this one had a certain air of grandeur. We then walked a couple of blocks to the White House, the seat of the Chilean government. It was a site of the military coup on Sept 11, 1973 that brought Pinochet to power. We even walked by the outside door through which the dead body of Salvador Allende was carried out after the coup---he committed suicide once he realized that Pinochet's forces were taking over.

Later in the evening we took a bus to a fancy part of Santiago with a gorgeous mall which reminded me of a luxury shopping center in the US...it even had an Apple store. From where our friend Lisa picked us up and took us to her apartment where we were reunited with the rest of the Benetton crew. We ordered sushi and drank expensive Chilean wine...until about 5am!!! It was almost sunrise by the time we got home.