December 13,

Well today I caught up on sleep. I didn’t get out of bed until 0900!!! Up and about, having breakfast in oatmeal – which Jeff thought was Muesli when he bought it and we didn’t liquify it enough. I used my yogurt in it and Jeff used some hot chocolate. Sometimes food is just fuel… this was definitely one of those times. I had my Jamaican Me Crazy coffee from the Spice Merchant back home. I love this coffee! 🥰😋 We spent the rest of the morning with Jeff trying and finally succeeding in buying some future bus tickets. It is difficult to book stuff online here with a foreign credit card and without a local phone number!!

Then we went out to explore. We walked to a pedestrian only street and just ambled down it. The way led to a cross street that ended at Iglesia de los Sacramentinos, or Church of the Blessed Sacrament. It was a very large, beautiful church. We walked all around it, but it was completely locked up/closed for entry. Too bad! We read the architecture was inspired by Paris’ Basilique du Sacré-Coeur. It was impressive. From here we went to El Sultan, a shawarma place nearby. Jeff had a mixed meat plate and I had a chicken plate. We took them back to our apartment to enjoy them (since the place was not set up for dining in) stopping at a convenience store for something to drink. The meals cost us 1700 CLP, which was $18.59.

We relaxed and went back out around 1800 to a nearby grocery store. We found most of the items on our list. Then went back to our place and had sandwiches with Pisco Sours on our balcony. We noticed the smog cleared up again this evening, as yesterday had; the venue had another party going on (it is across the street and maybe 7 stories down from us); and more music wafted up to us from the streets and places below. We video called my mother and her husband, then stayed out on the balcony until sunset, which we really just miss. It was a laid back day.

December 14,

I woke up feeling odd, nauseated and tired… just off. So I stayed in bed and slept in, off and on until 0930. Jeff did have a church lined up for us to go to, but obviously that did not happen. 😞 But when I did get up I felt better, the nausea was gone. We got around and had a belated breakfast of Muesli, yogurt and cherries. We wondered about the great fruit and looked it up. It seems Chile is the world’s leading exporter of cherries! They are very delicious!!

We zoomed with our church service back home and then watched the sad highlights of the Chiefs game. 😢😭 We tried to video with my sister, but she was with her daughter who was receiving her Master’s Degree! So proud of her, our niece – as we are with all of our nephews as well! Seeing them all gives me some confidence in this sometimes crazy world. Anyway, we then made some pasta with cheese & sausage and enjoyed it on our balcony. Then later we popped some stove-popped popcorn. We ended the day doing a video chat with Jeff’s sister and her husband. It has been a couple of days just being in Santiago, but good days.