Well, we did get to go into Santiago… under the watchful care of our official Outdoor Adventure Travel (OAT) tour guide, Luis. After packing up our bags, we headed back to the airport from our hotel across the street to have breakfast and meet up with Luis and the rest of our tour group. We boarded a shuttle bus and headed into the city to check into the Intercontinental, a very upscale hotel in the business district of Santiago… away from where the protests and violence was taking place.

Luis took us on a brief walk to show us some stores to purchase any items we might need on our tour, like bottled water… though Luis did assure us that tap water in Chile was okay. And he heavily recommended sunblock for some of the areas we would be visiting where the ozone layer over the southern end of the Earth is less dense, allowing more harmful UV rays to get through. On the following day, we would be flying to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), which is very reliant on satellite technology to operate things like credit card machines. So Luis recommended exchanging American money ($50 per person was suggested) for Chilean pesos. He pointed out some locations to accomplish this.

Peggy and I then had some lunch and took a short walk to stand close to the tallest building in South America, the 64-story Costanera Center. It is the largest shopping mall in Latin America with two hotels and two office towers.

In the mid-afternoon, we joined up with another OAT group in a conference room to talk about a last-minute change in our itinerary because of the political unrest going on around us. The two groups would be going to Easter Island together. Luis and Marcela (the other guide) then regaled us with their takes on reasons behind the current situation, which included references to former dictators (Pinochet of Chile and the regime after Peron of Argentina) and the desire to attain a truer and fairer democracy for its peoples. The unrest in Chile seemed to revolve around a 30 peso increase in metro fares ($0.41). Doesn’t seem like a big deal to us, but it’s the tip of the iceberg for the Chilean people. The minimum income in Chile, which 50% of Chileans live with, is $420 US/month. So 30 pesos represents 10% of that income bracket’s income to get to work. Luis talked about growing up in the Pinochet era with tanks on the street corners and how that made the current generation afraid to complain. The country is seething with unrest and anger about the inequalities in income. However, there doesn’t appear to be anyone that the protesters want in power. So…is it violence for the sake of violence? Is there a realistic goal? We hope to learn more in the next couple of weeks.

Quick Photo Links: graffiti | dollars to pesos | Costanera Center | guards and a juggler