Later, after showering, I wandered down to the breakfast room at about 8:00 AM and feasted on a Mélange of fresh fruits, several bite-sized fresh pastries, cappuccino, and a small assortment of crackers topped with smoked salmon, red onion, and capers. Delightful! The group met at 9:00 AM for our city tour. We are staying in the Providencia section of Santiago which is the financial district and is much newer than downtown. We first traveled up to a park overlooking the city.

This is the scene I woke up to this morning. Well, actually, that is not completely true. I had awakened a couple of hours prior to sunrise which was at 7:40 AM. Short days down here in Chile as sunset is expected to be at 5:2 PM. Anyway, I had left my curtains open so as to catch the first rays. I was laying in this massively comfortable King-sized bed propped up with about six luxurious pillows, sipping on an espresso, reading my Kindle when I realized the day was beginning.  This was my view from my ninth floor room.

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We then walked through a small park below…

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and drove by the United States Embassy.

Of course, we also went downtown to see the major government buildings and walk through the main square:

On the ground in the square is a bronze 3D map of the original layout of the city when it was founded. The “empty” square towards the middle is the square itself. It was VERY busy as there was a protest happening. As best we could tell, the protests all had to do with education, treatment of women, salaries…

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Students as well as professors were chanting something and it was quite loud. Many were blowing whistles. Also, the carbineros were everywhere–many of them in riot gear. Traffic was stopped and some attractions were not available because of the protests but, while we were there, everything seemed peaceful. My pictures don’t seem to show the number of people as it looks like I was taking pictures more of the signage.

One of the things I learned today was that Chile, as a country, has only two police forces, the Carabineros de Chile, the Chilean national police force, who have jurisdiction over the entire national territory of Chile, and Investigations Police of Chile (PDI). The PDI is the principal law enforcement arm of the Public Ministry of Chile in criminal investigation. The police you see in the streets are the Carabineros while the PDI are the ones who check in immigrants and visitors.

Another thing I learned today was that Chile has extreme natural borders. To the west, it is the Pacific Ocean, to the East, the Andes Mountains, to the south, the Antarctic waters, and to the north the Atacama Desert, which is one of the driest deserts in the world.  Very skinny country!

We returned from the city tour and had about 1-1/2 hours to kill. I ate ceviche de salmon al elqui for lunch Scrumptious! It is Chilean salmon, papaya, avocado, wheat milk, and blue potato chips. I really should remember to take pictures of the food I order as it is not only vvery delectable but also very pretty.

Now, on to the wine tour! I was a bit depressed yesterday because our guide said that only I had signed up for the wine tour and they have a requirement that there must be at least two persons or the tour is cancelled. Throughout our travels, I KNEW there were some other winos so I was shocked that I was the only pre-tour signup. Anyway, we did get to go as eight of us decided this was a good tour to go on.

About an hour outside of Santiago, Undurraga Winery was ready for us. David, pronounced Da-Veed, was our very knowledgeable guide. We got to see everything, from the gorgeous grounds with smells that titillate the senses, to the vineyards, to the stainless steel and then concrete vats, to the barrels, to the underground storage vaults, to the smelling rooms…

I have no idea why but all my pictures do not want to upload so, just wait, they will happen tomorrow!