So I'm in Chile...

I'm blogging from Santiago, Chile where I am for WORK!! Yup, I scored myself a job which requires international travel annually.  Here's how I got here.

At the beginning of March, I started as the Executive Assistant to the President & CEO of TechnoServe, an NGO that works in international development.  Obviously NGOs and international development are new to me (just like the labor movement was)', but I'm learning a lot, and I'm surrounded by people who travel all the time to amazing places.  It's inspiring. I had to plan a trip for my boss from DC to Addis Ababa to Abidjan (had to ask where that was - answer: Cote D'Ivoire) to Amsterdam.

One of the many things that attracted me to this job was where the job description said "plan and lead annual Board trips to Latin America and Africa!"  (Emphasis added though the job description should have totally had an exclamation point.). So this trip is the annual Board trip.  While I didn't plan it, I helped out with some of the details at the end and coming on the trip is going to give me a good idea of what I'll be coordinating for the next one.

Since the trip officially started Monday,  I opted to fly in a day early on Saturday so I could have Sunday to explore Santiago.  I flew from Dulles to Panama City to Santiago and just escaped the  8" of snow that DC got Sunday night. Looks like today would have been Snow Day #11 for me, but I will happily work today from the 80+ degrees here in Santiago.

Sunday I got up and headed out to walk down the river that cuts through the middle of Santiago.  It's bordered by a lovely park on both sides with bike and walking paths.  People were out in force on their bikes which may have been because there was some sort South American bike race going on in town which had roads blocked off here and there.  


The river park has a sculpture garden on one side.

I have since discovered that the bike race was part of the South American Olympics taking place in Santiago.  After stopping for an empanada at a local paneria, I headed up into Parque Metropolitano, better known as Cerro San Cristóbal. It's a huge park with a funicular at one end which brings you up to the summit. Due t the bike race, he park was closed to bikes and cars but open to people on foot. Phew!  I headed over to the funicular and was able to ask in functional Spanish whether I buy a ticket here (at the info booth I was standing at) or in the line. Woot woot!

Passing the other funicular car going down as we were going up

At the top of the park, in addition to sweeping views of Santiago, is a huge statute of the Virgin Mary and an open air church. Apparently Pope john Paul said mass here on a visit to Santiago in 1984. It's a nice outdoor worship space. I can see it being a lovely space to have a service in.

Views of Santiago from the summit of San Cristobal

The Virgin's view of Santiago and the open air church in the foreground

The open air church

From there it was back down the funicular and back to the hotel via the subway.  Now usually on these Barrantes Tour and travel trips, Todd is in charge of all in-country transportation. But alas he was at home I had to figure this one out solo. Luckily it was a pretty easy - 5 stops on the same line. And cheap! 260 pesos which is less than $1 for as far as you wan to ride.

I spent some time in the hotel getting off my feet and doing some curling stuff (this trip was a great chance to catch up on non-work work) before heading off to the roof of the nearby W Hotel. According to Lonely Planet, this swanky roof bar was a great place to watch the sunset over the Andes. I made my way up and discovered that their swanky bar wasn't open which actually meant I didn't have to buy an expensive pisco sour and could just set myself up to watch the sunset.

The roof also had a swanky swimming pool.

And these people had a cool rooftop deck.

I treated myself to dinner and turned in...only to have hotel staff knock on my door at 11:40pm and literally hand me a fruit plate and fork and knife. I was in my pjs when I answered the door and was a confused since I had been dead asleep. I just took it, put it down, and went back to bed. I'm guessing it was supposed to be delivered the night before so it was in my room when I arrived at 1am, but it's kind of hilarious that they felt it was important to wake me up at 11:40pm to deliver it.

Chilean wine at dinner (better than a fruit plate)

Full moon over Santiago