Monday 26 May 2008

Estacion Mapocho, Cerro and Ben's Last Santiago Weekend

I met Aranka and her Ecuadorian friend Raul on Pedro del Valdivia and we set off on our day out. It was the first nice day after it had been raining for a week so we were determined to make the most of it. We went to Estacion Mapocho where there was an exhibition of press photos. Whilst I was waiting for Aranka to finish looking at the photos I sat outside on the steps of the station and these women with electric blue trousers and stilletoe heels turned up with lots of cheese crackers. It was a promotion obviously but was very funny to watch the people walking by (who are usually never very English of course) form orderly queues in order to receive their free packet of crakers.

We walked along the river taking photos (inspired by the press photos but which were obviously not as good) and finally arrived in Bellavista where we ate in an Italian restaurant. My choice because I had woken up in the middle of the night before and was sure I could smell Gnocchi and pesto and my mouth started watering so to satisfy my hallucination I ordered gnocchi. Mmmmmm.

After that we went up the Cerro San Cristobal (I think that must be my fourth time now) on the Furnicular and had a walk around. We left Raul at the bottom because he didn't want to go on the teleferico (cable car) because he was afraid of heights. Aranka and I walked up to the virgin and had a look at some of the messages people had pinned up for her.

We walked down to the second teleferico station and enjoyed the view (the rain had cleared a lot of the smog and so we could just about see the mountains.). We passed lots of very enthusiastic joggers and cyclists who had come all the way from the bottom I think-very brave and finally arrived at the station. It was a very amusing journey for me on the way down because Aranka screamed when we launched off on the teleferico (well I supposed it is a bit like a roller coaster to start with.). Once we were on solid ground we headed back down Pedro del Valdivia and got prepared for the lemon pie feast.

I arrived at Pedro del Valdivia house an hour later along with lemon pie from the bakery on the corner of my road called Laura and we ate and made merry and of course according to the house rules; danced.

On Sunday we went for our last family meal with Ben at Pizza Nostra to take advantage of the two for one pizza offer and to celebrate our last day with Ben. So now there are only three of us :(

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