January 18th was our last full day of SIE
and last full day in the beautiful city of Santiago Chile. Before our departure
on January 19th, our groups were able to take part in the Santiago
cultural city game. My group (made up of myself, Colby Sturgis, Angie Perrone,
Diana Thu, and Arvav Vaid) had previously anticipated this game since we had
such an amazing time exploring the city of Buenos Aires during the last
cultural city game. Our game got off to a bit of a rough start. My group was
delayed an hour and a half due to members taking care of personal matters.
Regardless of this time constraint, we were determined to visit as many
locations throughout the city as possible. In order to get to our first
location, we took the metro to Baqueando and took a fifteen-minute walk in
hopes to take a funicular up San Cristóbal Hill. Unfortunately, upon our
arrival, we found out that the funiculars were closed for maintenance. Although
this was not ideal, my group attempted to turn this negative into a positive
and took the time to indulge into a Chilean drink called mote can huesillo. A stand
where this drink was being sold was found directly next to the information desk
that informed us of the maintenance that was taking place. The drink itself consisted of corn, dried
peaches, cinnamon, and wheat. Considering that drinks like this are not found
in the United States, we figured it would be best to do all we could to get
more invested in the Chilean culture. “It tastes just like iced tea” said Angie Perrone.
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(From left to right, Angie, Arnav, Diana, Colby and myself)
Drinking the delicious mote can huesillo. |
From there, our group continued on and made our way to the beautiful Santa
Lucía Hill. We climbing stairs on stairs in the scorching Santiago heat. Although
while walking not everyone was thrilled, but upon seeing the view from the top
we all came to realize it was worth it. “It was absolutely breath taking. You cannot
recreate a view like this.” Colby Sturgis chimed in after seeing the incredible
360-degree view Santa Lucía Hill gave of Santiago. This location was by far my
favorite of the day.
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| View from the top of Santa Lucia Hill |
A few moments after reaching the top, our group came upon
two other groups from our class. The three groups joined and we collectively
decided to go to Emporio La Rosa as our next location. This would give us the
perfect opportunity to get the ice cream we had so highly anticipated getting
together even before arriving in Chile! Yet, a few minutes later we came to
another unpredictable situation. Parts of the city had lost power. One of these
parts being where Emporio La Rosa stood. We were unable to experience the
delicious treats that Emporio La Rosa had to offer. “I had looked forward to
this ice cream even before our trip! But being able to see the rest of the city
made up for it” commented Angelina Leandres. After this disappointing moment, our
groups said our goodbyes and split ways so that we were able to move on to out
next location and experience more of what the city had to offer.
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| Emporio La Rosa closed in the middle of a power outage. |
From here, my
group took a walk through the streets and came upon the National Museum of Fine
Arts. This building connected two different art museums in Chile and housed hundreds
of pieces of Chilean art. Realizing we were coming short on time, my group
members took a few pictures of this cathedral inspired looking museum and
quickly made our way to Plaza de Armas. Here we were able to view the city in
all its beauty. Natives were making their way to and from different places,
vendors were selling trinkets and tourists were taking in all the excitement.
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| Our group in front of the Fine Arts Museum |
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| Plaza De Armas |
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| La Mondea Palace |
To end our excursion, my group took the time to visit (in my opinion) one of
the most gorgeous buildings in Santiago, La Moneda Palace. Moneda is Spanish
for money and the original purpose of this building was to be the colonial
mint. Its pristine exterior allowed us to see what beautiful architecture Chile
had to offer. It was the perfect end to our game. In the end, although my group
had a few setbacks along the way, we were able to take a step back and ask, did we accomplish all we could within the time provided? The answer was yes, we were able to visit almost all of the locations
within the Santiago cultural city game which was something we thought would not be possible
. As a group, we felt as though it was an
amazing experience that we would remember forever. Santiago is a city filled
with culture and experiences that cannot be had anywhere else.
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