Santiago- end of the line 1/2

Panic! Andy woke me up saying "it's 4"! Oh shit, my alarm was supposed to go off at 3:30. Damn thing. It was 4:15 and I hate rushing to get to the airport. We hurried downstairs and hoped the hostest called a taxi. There are two other girls going to the airport and they had a taxi. The woman said ours could be here at 4:30. That time came and went, still no taxi, I'm getting anxious. She called the company and argued w them a bit. Finally she said something like there wasn't another taxi since New Year's Day was yesterday. Well it's not today! That's right, we're in Chile. She made something work and the taxi arrived at 4:45. I'm still nervous but at least we have a ride. We got through checkin and security without issues. Time to relax. 

We arrived in Santiago at 9:30 and got in line to top our bags off for our 2am flight so ewe didn't have to deal w them. We couldn't drop them off until 8:30, although the lady at the front said we could now, so we finally left the airport at 11:30. 

Andy was hungry and starting to feel sick. We had the cab drop us off in the Santa Lucía area in the center of the city, same area as the hostel we first stayed in, Che Lagarto. We walked a lot today. First some indoor markets, then the Santa Lucía hill (not a very big on but nice w trees and a breeze in the hot city), then we walked through all the malls/markets along the main road O'Higgins east past the presidente's office, into lots of hardware stores through more malls and public restrooms. I was happy to pay 200 Pesos for some toilet paper and a stall so I could hydrate since it was 90 freakin degrees outside. 

For lunch we had hotdogs and Cristal beer. Not just any hotdogs, but Completos w mayo, salsa and some kind of pepper. These things had hella mayo, kinda gross but good. After walking a bit more we needed more beers and we split another hotdog. This time we went w the Italiano which had guacamole and another sauce that looked like mayo but was less potent, it was still overflowing and delicious. Along the way home from our long walk we needed wifi so we stopped in a bar that advertised it, got some cold wine and determined our target for dinner. 

Thanks to tripadvisor I figured we should go to Barrio Lastaria, I didn't know why but we went anyways. It turns out Barrio Lastaria is like Santana Row, a nice area surrounded by a city of crap. But it worked for us because that's just what we wanted, a nice seafood dinner. So far we haven't been sick and I didn't want to take my chance w seafood from a fried bucket, plus we were tired. 

We ate at some place that started w a Q in a dead end. We had wine, octopus ceviche for an app, I had the seafood risotto and Andy had the fish fried in tempura black squid ink in a pumpkin sauce. Always listen to the waiter recommendations, Andy's was bomb. We ate slowly since it was only 7 and we had lots of time to kill. Afterwards we headed to the Barrio street where we bought some artwork, then hailed a cab for the airport. Cabbies are so friendly here. Back at the airport by 10:30. 

Overall I don't care for Santiago too much, it's a huge dirty city. It's not cheap so why shop, I can only drink and eat so a much, the architecture isn't spectacular and I don't spend my vaca time going to museums or shows. We'll fly into Buenos Ares next time, I hear it's something to see. It's almost 1am and time for a Xanax and to sleep my Saturday away. Can't wait for a shower and my bed tomorrow night!