Tuesday May 7, 2013 .... Day 4

Today is Tuesday May 7, 2013. We started our day off around 8:00 to leave for Santiago, Chile's capital. Santiago is home to about 7 million people and accounts for approximately 40% of Chile's population. We arrived after about an hour and a half long bus trip and went to Chile's Stock Exchange. It has not been used nearly as much for actually trading stocks on the floor because they went digital in the mid-1990s. The woman teaching us about the stock exchange was very good. We took a group picture and then made our way to the largest cathedral in Chile. The cathedral was impressive. I could only imagine how many people could have fit in it. After leaving the cathedral, we visited a museum about Chile's history and history of Santiago. We went to a market for lunch and I ordered baked chicken and French fries. The food was very good, it may be the best I've had on the trip so far other than empanadas. Empanadas are similar to calzones and you can get practically anything you want in them. I have only tried cheese and chicken so far and I plan to try many more. After we ate lunch, we visited the Presidential Palace in Santiago. The president does not live there, he only works there. I found that pretty interesting and our tour guide was interesting too. He could only speak a little bit of English but overall he was able to communicate with us well enough for us to understand him. The highlight of the day was traveling up the mountain on the incline and walking the last steps to the top. The view from the top was amazing. We were able to see all of Santiago and many mountains and other towns. I was able to get a decent amount of pictures from there. It was just a very peaceful area. This concluded our day of touring and we headed back to Viña del Mar.