Monday, January 9th

Monday, January 9^th

Today we got a bus tour of Santiago. Our first stop was to downtown to the presidential palace where we got to see the changing of the guard. This occurs every other day because the guards have 48 hour shifts. It was an extensive ceremony with a band and everything. We then walked down to the main pedestrian street which was packed. They had a lot of stand up coffee places and a ton of shoe shiners. The stand up coffee places are called “coffee with legs.” We walked to a famous square which had an old Catholic church. The architecture was absolutely incredible. The church had a lot of people in it and it was really amazing. We learned that 70% of Chileans consider themselves Catholic so they are a very religious nation.

 The presidential palace

 Changing of the guard

 Silly silly dog--I want to adopt all of them :(

 "Coffee with legs"

Beautiful church

Our tour guide then took us to a market area where we were able to purchase hand-made crafts and jewelry. It was really cool to see them make the crafts and learn how long it took them to make it. There were a lot of items with their national stone (lapis I believe) and a lot of sweaters and scarves made of Alpaca wool. These were stores instead of vendors outside with their items on blankets, but the stores were still very small inside.

Our next stop was to the bottom of a huge hill (looked like a mountain to me) with the Immaculate Conception (Virgin Mary) on the top of it. We got tickets and took the train up to the top so we could see all of Santiago. It was incredible to see the city in the front and the mountains in the background.

Overview of Santiago, Chile

I learned a lot from our tour guide today. We learned that there are a lot of Bohemian neighborhood in Santiago and many of the stores close early on Sundays. Banks are open from 9-2 pm and the Chilean peso is weaker than the Argentina peso. The eastern part of Santiago is the most well developed and richest part of the city. They currently have a good standard of living of about $15,000 per year.

Copper is huge in Chile and is their largest export and the palm tree is the native tree of Chile. We learned that the university is on strike right now. Students want education to be free but it hasn’t changed. There have been riots and such and tear gas was even used. It somewhat reminded me of what is going on with the Occupy movement in the U.S.

The government has closed the park at night because a lot of couples get too frisky in the parks. I thought this was funny because I have noticed that people are a lot more open about PDA in South America than in the U.S.

The coast is only about an hour and a half away so I hope we get to go one day! Santiago has a population of 6 million people and an earthquake 2 years ago hurt a lot of the buildings there. One thing I did notice was that the pollution was pretty bad. You should be able to see the mountains in the background but the smog covered a lot of it up.

Santiago has experienced a lot of growth in construction over the past few years. They built 6 new highways. They have imported a lot of cars within the last year and broke records. Many of these cars are from Asia, so we saw a lot of Toyotas out there. They don’t produce much oil in Chile and there are really high gas prices with about $6 per gallon. There have been a lot of protests about the high oil prices as well.

July is the coldest month in Chile. It still is hard to believe it is 90 degrees in January! Chile has become a lot safer over the past few years and the corruption rate has decreased significantly. The subway system is pretty safe as well and is very modern and useful.

We then went back to the Patio Bellavista for lunch and I ate the empanadas which were wonderful. We did some shopping at the Patio Bellavista and they had a lot of hand-made jewelry and sweaters for sale. We went to an outdoor market, which had a lot of pretty artwork around it. We took a different route back home so we could see more of the city. We then got back to the hotel and we found a local mall about 20 minutes away. We took a taxi there and we learned that you should only take the taxis with an orange license plate because the ones with white plates are not registered (aka illegal). We also got told by the front desk man that we should ask them for an approximate cost so we don’t get ripped off since we are foreigners.

The taxi was really cheap and the mall we went to was absolutely huge. It had 3 levels and every shop you could imagine. One thing I did notice was that a lot of the stores such as Nike and Adidas were much larger than the local stores. These stores also only really carried soccer gear instead of all sports. They had a neat store called Paris, which is basically like a Macy’s times 10. It is the most popular department store in Chile.

We grabbed a taxi and went back to the hotel to relax. We decided to skip dinner because our lunch was so filling. Tomorrow we are going to Dole, Banco Santander, and the Santiago Stock Exchange. It should be a really interesting and cool experience! Hopefully we get some fruit (or money!)

Sunday, January 8th

Sunday, January 8^th

Chile Conversions:

$1 USD = 500 pesos

$5 USD = 2,500 pesos

$10 USD = 5,000 pesos

$25 USD = 12,500 pesos

$50 USD = 25,000 pesos

$100 USD = 50,000 pesos

$150 USD = 75,000 pesos

Today we leave Mendoza for Santiago! We got our bus passes and the bus is actually pretty nice. We are going to have to stop at customs in Chile and have then go through our bags and such. The scenery on the bus is beautiful. You feel like you are in the mountains. There were a few bumpy spots in the road but it wasn’t a bad ride at all. I would recommend it. We got stopped at the border and oh boy that was an experience. Luckily, if you come on a bus, you typically don’t have to pay a reciprocity fee like you do if you fly in. We did, however, have to unload everything, exit Argentina, declare any items and then enter into Chile. They searched random bags and had the search dogs out and about (Raul was there!)

 The Andes Mountains

 Chile here we are!

 Crazy but beautiful roads

We got through customs in about 2 hours. It was one of the most intense processes I’ve been through. They don’t want you to bring in certain items that could hurt their economy or food that could bring insects and hurt Chile.

We continued our bus ride and then we approached the 30 curves down the mountain. There literally are a ton of curves going down a mountain. Scary! We made it through though. We were at about 10,000 feet and it was a beautiful site seeing experience. We finally arrived at the bus station and found our tour guide. We got all checked in to our hotel which is really nice. Our group went to the ATM and got 100,000 pesos out (big spender!) which is about $200 USD. Our group then went out to dinner.

While walking to dinner, we once again saw a lot of stray dogs but I feel like Santiago is going to be a mix between Buenos Aires and Mendoza. There was still a lot of trash and graffiti but it isn’t quite as busy as Buenos Aires. We went to a Bohemian neighborhood with lots of shops and restaurants called Patio Bellavista. We split up into 2 groups to eat dinner. My group went to a sushi bar up on the balcony level. Santiago is known for their fresh seafood so I was really excited. I got the California Sake and a lot of people at our table got the Pisco Sour, which is a very popular Chilean drink usually served as an appetizer. It has lemon juice, egg whites, etc. in it. I thought it would be disgusting but it was actually quite delicious.

Great group dinner! On our way home, we saw a lot of stray dogs so naturally I named all of them. My best one of the night was Muffin. It amazes me how many strays there are on the streets. Our guide says that they are trying to think of a way to cut down the population but it is a major problem.

Goodnight all!

Saturday, January 7th

Saturday, January 7^th

We started off today with our bike tour of the city. We met our guides at the hotel and then we walked to get our bikes. It was a struggle at first but I really enjoyed it in the end. We rode throughout the park and saw a lot of people running and rollerblading and skateboarding. There was a rowing club by the lake where members could practice. It was a really nice bike tour especially going downhill in the breeze. We learned a little about the history of Mendoza as well. It is obviously know for its wine but it is also sunny 320 days of the year. It has a desert but is also located by the mountains. There was an earthquake many years ago, which destroyed part of the city. Chile gets a lot more natural disasters but Mendoza gets some crazy disasters every once in awhile. Our bike tour was pretty awesome even though everyone was dead tired. We happened to break 3 bikes along the way, which was pretty funny but everyone made it out alive.

 Ready...set...go!

Broken bike #3--oops

We were free in the afternoon to do what we wanted. Our group ate lunch at a place where the electricity went out. It was a pretty adventurous lunch. There was a small wine shop across the street where we found melted down wine bottles. I bought some for myself and my parents and found a bottle of Medalla. We walked around in the park and looked at some vendors who were selling jewelry, bags, and artwork. It was in the high 90’s so we decided to get some gelato and relax for a bit.

We then found a grocery store and bought lunch for the bus ride tomorrow. We went back to the hotel and packed our bags up. We went and got kabobs for dinner around the corner. There was a little boy who was looking at the food and I couldn’t see his parents. I bought him a kabob. He was really appreciative and scarfed it down. We went back to the hotel and me, Alison, Dane and Ben hung out and drank some wine and just chatted. Tomorrow we have an 8-10ish hour drive to Santiago. We are driving through the mountains on a huge bus so it should be pretty interesting.

Overview of Mendoza:

·     * It was a lot more relaxing and laid back then Buenos Aires.

·      *There was a lot of hungry children and dogs on the street. Heartbreaking.

·      *They have a very family oriented atmosphere.

·      *All of Argentina is obsessed with the Simpsons and Disney. It is everywhere!

·      *You have to ask for ice in your drink.

Friday, January 6th

Friday, January 6^th

 Today we visited wine country. Our first stop was to Trapiche winery. We got a tour of the vineyards which was really neat because I know nothing about wine. They have about 320 days of sunlight and 9 days of rain per year. The intense heat helps produce the higher alcohol content. Good wine depends on 2 things—good weather and good soil. They water the vines for 24 hours and then let it rest for 7 days. Trapiche focuses on the health of the plant to ensure a premium wine.

We got a tour of the old machinery used during the wine making process and then it was finally ready for the wine tasting. We learned to swirl around the wine to open it up to oxygen for a more pleasurable experience.

The first wine was a 2010 Sanv Blanc Vintage. It was clear and you could tell it was really fruity. We then tried the 2006 Medalla, which had a peppery, spicy kick. It was my favorite. It is a 90% Cabernet, 7% Malbec, and 3% Merlot mix. I got a bottle of that later on. Our final wine was the 2007 Merlot-Malbec. It is a 50/50 mix and you could tell that they let it age in an oak barrel. It was called “Iscay” which means two. It was very delicious as well.

After our group checked out the giftshop and such, the Regional manager come out to speak to us. He is in charge of the Europe branch. He told us that they’ve seen an increase in the number of Scandanavian people purchasing wine and many times there are monopolies in those areas.

As for marketing purposes, labels can make a huge difference on sales. Some store owners choose their wines off of the label alone. As a manager, he has started to see other markets open up to wine. China is in high demand and they are willing to pay more to get it. Trapiche’s strategies now are to increase the mid-price wines but only those that are of high quality. Trapiche is in over 85 countries and is definitely looking at the strategies of the Old World wine countries.

Our group then went to lunch at Familia Zuccardi. The meal was excellent and we had about 10 courses. We got to try the Santa Julia-Sauvignon Blanc, Santa Julia-Malbec, and Santa Julia-Tardio with our meal. I have to say I really enjoyed the Malbec over the white wines. We got a quick tour of the winery after lunch and tried a Torrontes, which was a white wine. We then tried the Bonarda, which was a red wine. It was then time to travel to our third winery for the day.

 Our traditional KSU pose!

The third winery was Carinae and it is a small family run winery in Mendoza. The owner gave us a tour of the winery and showed us all of the changes that have been made over the years. He even named one of the wines after his wife. We then got down to business—wine tasting. We then tried all different kinds of Malbecs which were delicious. My favorite was the Malbec Gan Reserva 2008. I got a bottle for my parents.

 The owner of the winery--so cute! This was one of my favorite places.

I learned a lot from the wineries. I didn’t ever know how intense the process was. It was really neat to learn the history and to see that a lot of the wineries were family owned and oriented. I also thought it was neat to learn that they typically only use the oak barrels 3-4 times and then they sell them as furniture or to other vendors.

A small group of us got back, took a nap, got dinner, and then listened to the K-State game on the radio. We stood up until about 2 am listening to it. I’m sad we lost the Cotton Bowl but it was fun hanging out in the lobby with everyone listening to it.