I arrived at Carol's house by about 7:30, which was early enough to meet her and her other houseguest, Jay, before she left for work. I just have to mention that Carol lives in a very large and beautiful house just a few blocks from where General Pinochet, the former dictator and current head of the armed forces of Chile, lives. The house is provided by the American Embassy so that she can have a place to entertain, and so is paid for by the American taxpayer. We are definately getting our money's worth out of this place, and for those of you who will never get to visit, well just be glad I stayed there for you.	This is Carol and Jay. They took fantastic care of me while I was in Santiago. I don't remember when I have eaten so well so continuously.
	I was so excited to be in Chile at last that I didn't feel at all tired - instead I was wired and took a shower and hit the streets. Carol had been nice enough to put together a big stack of guide books, and I looked through those before I left. I had decided to head downtown to the older central district around the Plaze del Armas. The metro ran from nearby directly there, but I decided to walk a bit to soak up the feeling of the city and the sound of the language, and because it was downhill all the way and wouldn't be a difficult walk. Santiago had a different feeling than other Latin cities I have been in. It was clean and bustling with a healthy population and an amazing number of yellow buses and had signs of American influence like McDonalds and AlphaGraphics sprinkled liberally around. The language was really strange to me. I learned to speak spanish as a teenager in Spain, but the accent in Chile is very different. They speak very rapidly and tend to drop the final consonants of the words. At first I didn't even feel like I should understand it, but after a few days some neglected brain cell woke up and all the sudden I could understand a bit more and speak alot more.	Santaigo's bustling downtown.
	I ended up downtown and walked through the pedestrian mall in the center of the city. The whole place was bustling, even in the heat of the midday summer. I made my way to the Central Post Office, which fronted a central square it shared with the old cathedral and some other buildings. The post office was neat - there were vendors insie and outside selling everything you might need to write someone a letter or postcard and mail it, and insie there were writing tables with many people writing letters to send immediately. A nice system. I bought a bunch of postcards, mostly featuring whitewater and Santiago city scens, and the appropriate stamps for postage to the U.S. and U.K., so I could send cards early to make people jealous before I had a chance to come home and gloat. I sat out on a bench in the square in the sun and dozed a bit as the travel caught up with me, then went into the cathedral to look around and cool off. Inside, I saw the end of a small mass, and after that a group consisting of mostly older women stayed and stood and sang hyms in spanish. The cathedral itself was not as spectacular as many in Europe, but then not many cathedrals in Europe have been destroyed repeatedly by earthquakes and fire.	The central post office.
	Many people walking around were eating ice cream to help with the heat, and that seemed like a good idea, so I stopped at an ice cream stand and bought some cappuchino ice cream to eat and smear all over my face as I walked around. I found my way back to the Metro and out to carols house fairly early, not having seen much of the tourist parts of the town, but having got a feel for the city. It is an interesting city in its normality. It is extremely modern and has a more busy European feeling than I ever saw in central america, but lacks the uniqueness and charm of other places, perhaps as a reflection of its rapid development. Later, when I was down south boating, the contrast between the moderness of the city and the ruralness of the coutry was amazing. I managed to stay up for a pretty long time before finally crashing for the night.
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