New Country - Curveballs in Chile!

 We landed in Santiago, Chile, with much warmer weather and a few curveballs to make our stay a little more interesting.

Some of the sites around town and the market.

Our first one was showing up at the cable car on the first Monday of the month, which is maintenance day, and, therefore, it wasn't running. We wanted to see the statue at the top, and we'd just been dropped off by our Uber, so we decided to hike it, in flip-flops with NO water! Not a good move at all. Luckily, near the top, there was a kiosk where we could buy water. The hike was not too strenuous, unlike the previous hiking expeditions Mark has had me on, but it was challenging enough given our preparedness. There were some great views, and we definately earned our dinner that night. 

Curveball number two occurred during our walk around town. We felt what we thought was water or bird poop. It was strange; there was no bird when we looked up, nor were we very close to a building. Sure enough, both Mark and I were covered in 'stuff'. If it were bird poop, the bird was the size of an ostrich. The very nice fellow behind us offered me Kleenex and guided us over to the fountain to wash up, then proceeded to try to take my purse. Yep, we had been bird poop scammed. Thankfully, we got off pretty lucky except when it came to trying to wash the 'stuff' out of our clothing! I was not a happy camper. 

All of the vendors have a specialty. We saw vendors selling just hair accessories, some sink drains, and other white bowls! I took the picture of our meal above because there is a tentacle sticking out of Mark's seafood rice!!!

Curveball number three was booking a manicure and pedicure in what I thought was a salon, but ended up being the nail tech's apartment. Turned out to be the best curveball ever! I had a Russian manicure and pedicure, and it was the best experience I've had getting my nails done... ever. They looked beautiful, and somehow the nail technician managed to make my feet appear as if they hadn't been blistered and calloused from the last five weeks of hiking and trekking! 

Ready for the pool! I tried to coerce Mark into getting a pedicure, too, but he refused!

We just had a quick two-day stop in Santiago, but that was enough of the city. We were looking forward to heading to the Atacama Desert!