3/11

Outside my hotel, waiting to cross the street. This is a tourist train combo that came by and I was so busy taking pictures of it when I looked up as they came level with me every person on it seemed to be waving at me,  it was pretty cool. They were all smiling and having a good time. 

A big old downtown  church but I don’t know what it was called.  Definitely looks like a Spanish Catholic church though, so probably built with slave labor thanks to the.”kindly” priests

Still loving those weeping willows with a haircut instead of doing what they do in America, which is usually cut the branch off. This is so much more environmentally sound, and looks kind of cool.

Big metal horse statues in the playground

There are more of these red trucks with yellow stripes in Chile than any other vehicle. They belong to the all the mining companies and they transport parts, machines, workers and help on the hiway  broken-down trucks, you name it 

Another MacGyver deal to hang the clothes on the rack, using the coat hangers and my backpack to weigh it down while they hung outside to dry in the sun that was coming in that window

A pretty cool use of a conical hill to raise crops

I believe this translates to university at the end of the world, but I’m probably wrong

This is a giant statue of their version of Bigfoot called Chupacabra, better pic below

Seen a lot of grapes in my life but I’ve never seen them do this. From what my new friend Luis says they were making raisins. There were at least a half a mile of purple and green grapes all laid out on plastic liners to dry in the sun.

Think you can figure this one out, but I bet they got the idea from the states

Best conversation I’ve had on this trip. I was parking across the street as you can see and going over to the restaurant behind the lady taking the photo and I asked this guy something I can’t remember but anyway we got to talking and sat there talking to him for an hour and a half. Ended up didn’t even go anywhere by the time I stopped talking to him, (Luis) was almost 3 o’clock so I said to hell with it and just went and got a hotel nearby which is where I am now.   Super interesting guy been around. 99% of the conversation was in Spanish which, of course my Spanish isn’t perfect but he could understand me so that worked out pretty well And he was one of the few guys I’ve talked to that has no knowledge of Duolingo so I told him if  he wanted to improve his English he should get on that because it’s free for everyone.   His idea to put my helmet in the pic.

A new skyscraper with an interesting top design in the heart of Santiago

My last view of Mount Aconcagua, as I was leaving San Felipe

The Chupacabra statue in the background

Supposedly Chuper meaning to suck and Cabra meaning goat means something scary

Unfortunately, saw a couple of starving dogs along the road. They were walking around. They weren’t down and out but I could see everyone of their ribs and they didn’t look like they were begging. They were just moving along looking for anything to eat.  I didn’t have anything so I couldn’t give them anything. Plus I was driving the bike at the time that. Weird that I felt more empathy for those dogs than for the people I see sitting down with their hands out, begging for food or money. I don’t know what that says about me but oh well.