Weekend in

I've had enough of hiking for a while and wanted to spend a quiet day exploring the city. Getting 6+ of us together would make 'quiet' physically impossible, so we decided to play it low key. Brian and Peter and I spend our Saturday exploring the local fort and artisan fair. I was an idiot and forgot my camera, so in true cause-and-effect fashion this post won't have any pictures.

When Pedro de Valdiva first founded Santiago in 1541 he started with Santa Lucia. The hill made an excellent lookout point and was easier to climb than San Cristobal. In 1820 they stuck a fort on it as a means of defense, as opposed to sticking a fort on it as a means to attract tourists. Over the past 190 years its purpose as shifted much more towards the latter. For example, they shoved a giant fountain in the entrance and put a statue of Poisedon Posidon Neptune on top of it. It definitely gives the Drexel fountain a run for its money. We tossed ten peso coins into the pool and entered the fort itself.

The place is gutted as a tourist attraction. Everything that made it a defensive position has been taken out and replaced with walkways, ramps and camera sights. From various levels point fake cannons, some of which aren't even made of metal. The most intricate one points straight at the national library. Some people used it as an impromptu trashcan.

I'd have to say the climb was a lot more pleasant than our last two. For one, steps! More importantly it was a lot better tiered; every couple of minutes we could stop and see a completely new and exciting view. The sites were far more intimate than San Cristobal ever was, and even at the peak we could see people laughing and playing in the streets below. Throughout the fort we kept finding small plaques and statues. To my delight I could translate most of them, using the gist and rough estimates to work out the words I didn't know. My Spanish is improving!

After Santa Lucia we checked out a local artisan fair. I bought a few souvenirs for people (you know who you are). A lot of them revolve around a semiprecious stone called lapis lazuli, a bright blue semiprecious stone. Chile has some of the biggest lapis lazuli quarries in the world. Many Chileans are proud of the stone, noting that its only found in Chile and Afghanistan. A surefire way to make them hate you is to point out it's also found in Burma, California, Colorado, Canada, India, and Russia. I now own a few pieces, but still have many more souvenirs to go. It was a pretty fun place and I've gotta go back before September.

We're going to the Atacama next week. So excited! We're gonna be out for three days, so I'll probably upload everything Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm already at 38% storage maximum on Google. Let's see if I can bump it past 50.