Hello everyone- So, it looks like i actually made it here! Whew! What an ordeal to get here! I left house around 3am Monday night/Tuesday morning and got into Santiago Wednesday at 9:30! Somehow, I made it out of the airport and to my hostel, although i am pretty sure that i got swindeled on my ride! I just wanted to lie down and take off all my stuff! I couldn't wait for long to see the city, so I took off to see how many times I could get lost in one day! Although, in all fairness, I don't technically have a plan, so I can't technically get lost! I wandered out to see if I could find a "cambio" I could change money at! (By the way, why do some countries have to add so many 0's to their money?) I, instead, managed to stumble on some beautiful sights I hadn't even planned on seeing! There is this gorgeous park right in front of my hotel that seems to be a popular spot for schoolgirls and canoodeling couples! When I emerged from the park, I was in front of the Palacio de Bellas Artes, one of my stops, but I still didn't have any money to enter! I headed down the street and ended up getting lost in, what i later found out, was a old hermitage, turned battlement, turned nunnery, turned botanical reserve (whew!). I finally found my way out of there and continued on my search for the ever elusive "cambio"! After many consfusing directions and "no se's" I found one and took care of everything! Next, it was off to find some food for my jet-lagged and time-zone confused body! Once again, sidetracked! This time it was the Museo Chile de Arte Precolumbiano, an extensive collection of Incan ruins, mostly from Mexico! From there, I ran into the Plaze de Armas and the Santa Iglesia Catedral whose inside is one of the most gourgeous churches I have ever been in! Accomplished my mission of finding food by having lunch at the ever tacky, but ever scrumptious local cafe "Sanguchazo"! Sat and had lunch and watched parents eat, drink, and smoke, while they sent off their children to beg for money from the other tables! If it keeps up like this, it seems this will be, if nothing else, a very intersting country and trip! I have more to write, but someone at my hotel is breathing down my neck to use the internet and I am head out of town anyways, so I'll write and post pictures later! See you in Valaparispo!!! Stacey