"Hola Mujeres!!"

Thursday July 23

Lecture by Jose Zalaquett on Human Rights during Pinochett and a touch of International Law during the case of Pinochett's extradiction. Extremely interesting, especially coming from a lawyer who lived through the dictatorship and was exiled himself.

The group went to Bella Vista for lunch and we settled on eating in a small (TINY) cafe/clothing boutique. not only were we eating on top of ourselves but also on top of the clothing haha. The cafe was so small an underequipped for our large group they had to go grocery shopping to make our meals. But the food was surprisingly great.

We ventured to the outskirts of town to Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi which was the spot of one of the biggest torture houses during the dictatorship. Over 5,000 people were kept here and tortured. The facilities were destroyed by the army to destroy evidence, but survivors bought the land and made it into a beautiful parque. There are symbols of the facilities and the acts of torture, but the survivors wanted to make it a beautiful place for people to visit. This place hits very close to home for many Chileans. Even our professor said she had friends who had spent a week or so in this facility.

Friday July 24

Morning lecture on poverty in Chile. Our lecturer spoke in Spanish but he spoke slowly and clearly and HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENT: I understood! well, most of it anyway.

Half of the group left to go to La Serena 6 hours north of Santiago on the beach. The other half, the leftovers, aka the smart people who didnt want to sit on a bus for six + hours were treated to lunch at Coco Loco which is a pricy seafood restaurant with fabulousss food!

The small group of us went out for Karaoke and Piscos at a place called play back. And yes, I got up on stage with Naris to sing a fantastic rendition of Ace of Base "All that she wants." sounded great with my congestion

Saturday July 25

Beautiful day for a trip to the Santa Carolina Winery. It is a national historic landmark and the original facilities from the 19th century are still there. We got to sample some of their red and white wines. They are the 4th largest producer of wine in Chile.

Then we went up to Cerro San Cristobal which is the mountain with the large pregnant virgin mary that looks over Santiago. In true Chilean fashion, the girl at the information booth told us the bus to go up the mountain could be here in 20 minutes or an hour or whenever. sweet. When it did come, we all didnt fit, so we had to wait another 45 minutes anyway. So when we finally got up, the view was amazing. We were well above the cloud line and the smog line. We could see for miles and we had snowy mountains and palm trees in the same picture...when do you ever get that? I also got to see Mary up close and personal. She had man hands. The guy in the souvenier shop kept teasing me and would make me speak to him in Spanish so buying my postcards took much longer than necessary.

A few of us got all fancied up and went out for dinner to this very nice restaurant Valentina recommended called Liguria. Here is the review from Lonely Planet:

A legend on the Santiago restaurant circuit, Liguria has a simple recipe for its incredible popularity: line your walls with pictures and memorabilia, offer a great menu at a surprisingly low price and add a hefty pinch of bohemia and bustle overseen by slick waiters, then watch your locales fill so much that many would-be diners end up disappointed even on a weeknight. The great and the notorious have long flocked to Liguria - a drunken Marcelo Ríos (former world tennis number one) famously caused a kerfuffle here.

The atmosphere was great, our waiter was fun, and the food was delish. We were given the VIP room that Cat Power sat in last week. Beck also comes to this place for its honey ice cream. Now Rachel Staley goes to this place for its honey ice cream. great ending to a great day.

Sunday July 26

I slept in. I have nothing planned. It feels great.