Guest Blogger: Visitor from Philadelphia

You may be wondering, where in the world is Matt? He's still here in Chile, but he's been very busy giving me tours of his beautiful/smoggy city and gorgeous countryside. He has granted me permission to post an entry regarding my own travels and impressions of Chile - or as I like to call it, the Kentucky of South America. (Why? Because everyone's just that friendly.)

I arrived about two weeks ago (I'm departing later tonight) in the cold and windy Santiago. I have to say that Matt prepared me for the cold weather, but I had sort of "forgotten" what winter was like as we had been enjoying 90 degree weather in Philadelphia the past few days. In any event, I bundled up upon my arrival. Although Matt periodically had to attend class or do homework (I can attest to the fact that he is still a good student), he was able to show me all around the city.

I met Matt's Chilean mother of whom he has previously spoken highly. She is indeed wonderful. Very kind and welcoming.

Santiago is a very interesting city. I didn't have many preconceptions about the city, but I guess I was surprised by how large and cosmopolitan it is. I guess I shouldn't've been, but alas, I was ignorant. Right now, it's sunny and 65 degrees. And in this weather, I think I would be happy to whittle away a few months.

Unfortunately I do not have a lot of time to recount details from all of our travels, but here are just a few highlights:

• Museo de Bellas Artes - small, but definitely worth seeing!
• TranSantiago - Matt was not exaggerating. Disaster.
• Bars, restaurants, and cafes too numerous to mention individually except BlueBird (for rescuing my bag and camera) and Café de las Artes cause we went there a lot.
  
• The Zoo - yeah, well, it had a great view of the city.
• Vicuña - Matt and I traveled here over the weekend. It epitomizes "quaint, latin pueblo." Great helado, cool observatory, and a pisco plant tour which was brief but fruitful (read: free samples).
• Serena - Everything was closed both times we went there (on the way to Vicuña). We had a truly mind-blowing mall experience (you can see a hot new Toblerone ad above in which Matt plays the self-absorbed, desperate house-husband).

Thank you, Matt, for a wonderful time in Chile and for letting me post some final thoughts about your (temporary) adopted country. Oh, and in case you're wondering, his Spanish is really good now.

Regards,
Eric