Nov 15 -19, 2016: Chile 

Nov. 16, 2016. La Casa Roja, Santiago, Chile.

• Off to see the big city on foot.  A fresh squeezed O.J. from a street vendor, and my first stop: the Museo Chile de Arte Precolombino.  Fabulous.  Starts out with a room called "Masterpieces", great stuff from all over, then rooms on Mesoamerica, Southern Andes, Caribbean and Amazonia, everybody in South and Central America, even Mexico.  Everything in English as well as Spanish; took a billion photos, this time remembering to photo the descriptions as well.  Most unusual exhibit was wooden vomit spatulas used by Amazonian shamans before taking psychoactive drugs.  Must get Dana one!

• I was in the museum at least 3-4 hours.  Best museum yet, and doubly cool because I had visited a lot of the sites where the artifacts were from, so it wasn't all a complete blur.  

• Next stop: Mercado Central, where I am now, with a big plate of raw mariscos and a half bottle of Chilean Sauvignon Blanco, strolling musicians, in a huge restaurant full of locals - and at 3 PM on a Wednesday afternoon.  The day is shaping up nicely.

• Meal over, heading now to Centro Artesanal Santa Lucia, hoping to find some good gifts.

• And find I did.  Here's what I came back with (everything alpaca):

Large sweater: Jeremy

3 ski hats: the boys

2 pair socks: Susan, Lisa?

2 pair small mittens: the girls

2 toy llamas: the girls

4 mufflers: Rachael, Susan, Erik, Caren

Small backpack: Rachael

Toy train: Donovan

2 lapis bracelets: Rachael, Caren

Coins: the boys

• Bill for a pisco sour, three enormous and delicious lamb chops, and a half bottle of Cabernet: $30.  

• Walking around the adjacent plaza.  10:39, shirt sleeve weather, couples hanging out on park benches and sidewalk cafes, occasional smell of weed, very mellow, as it was when I was last here (Oct 27: three weeks ago!). I do like Santiago - walking downtown in the pedestrian-only streets was good, too.  This could be my favorite big city.

• Tomorrow: Valparaiso.  

• Should it bother me that I haven't showered in three days?  Or changed underwear or socks?  Unless I get my hands on a towel somehow, this could stretch out to almost a week, making me very unpopular with Avianca.  And all it would require is access to a towel (which I have been traveling without).  Hey, on the PCT, I would go a week or more without washing, stinking it up much worse, and not even think about it.  Getting soft, Sam.  Down to one pair dirty underpants, one ripped up pair of pants, three dirty smelly pairs of socks, one pretty clean t-shirt (but it's been slept in twice, and three more nights to go), one really filthy long-sleeved cotton shirt, and thank goodness my many-pocketed wrinkled but relatively clean hiking shirt.  My "hiking" shoes and my Merrill lightweight camp shoes are also pretty much gone.  I think my fellow Avianca travelers aren't going to be overjoyed when they have to sit next to me.

• Below is a small sample of the wonders at the Museo Chile de Arte Precolombino.