Laura is flying to the US again today. This time for 10 days. I accompanied her to Santiago where she starts her flight. In anticipation of this trip, I arranged to meet my collaborator there for lunch and some walking around downtown. Laura and I successfully navigated the bus from Vina del Mar to Santiago followed by the metro to our arranged meeting place. We were joined by one of the graduates students from the research group that I have been working with on a side project.
After introductions all around, we had a nice lunch at Casa Lastarria. Surprisingly, our waitress spoke English and was very kind. This was very much a get-to-know-you lunch and we didn't discuss research very much at all. We shared personal stories, talked politics (both Chilean and US). Half in Spanish, half in English.
After lunch, we walked up the nearby Cerro Santa Lucia (Santa Lucia Hill) and had a nice view of the surrounding cityscape.
And this cat was in the exact right place,
Next, we walked to the old train station--Centro Cultural Estación Mapocho. This station as well as the entire Chilean train system failed during the Pinochet years. Post-Pinochet, it has been refurbished and is now a cultural center. Today, we were between exhibitions, but typically the building hosts cultural events one after the other all year long.
Conveniently, there was a metro stop right by this building, so after parting company with our Chilean friends, we caught the metro back to the bus station. I caught the bus back to Vina del Mar and Laura caught the bus to the airport.
As I write this, I'm home and Laura is sitting on the plane in Santiago waiting to take off. I suspect I will get the better night's sleep tonight.
All in all, a good day. Also, we mapped out a lot of the travel steps that our future visitors will have to navigate when they get here.
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I got home a little late to see the sunset, but the ocean was oddly glassy today and the reflections of the dusky, cloudy sky were beautiful
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