Santiago

I won't complain too much about the cramped American Airlines flight from Dallas to Santiago. We were rerouted overnight so ended up being in the air for ten and a half instead of nine and a half hours.

It took hours to get our bags and get through customs but by four in the afternoon, I had eaten kingfish in the mercado central, taken the funicular up San Cristobal and walked through the zoo. (A little aside literary project of mine involves a study of zoos around the world and I was happy here to see some damn cute baby lemurs leaping, a white tiger, and, drumroll, a family of Mara which are strange, goat-rabbit creatures of South America.)  Also in the zoo - Hobart's Penguins, so already I've seen the little tuxedoed chaps.  

It was strange to see  a long, long line up for Santa in the central square while I was worried about whether I was wearing enough sun screen. 

Today, I was sipping carmenere in the Maipo valley in the morning and this afternoon, the highlight of my trip so far, a tour of Pablo Neruda's house where he wrote some of his greatest poems.

It is summer here. I'm going to have a hard time explaining my tan when I get back from Antarctica.

Tomorrow... 4am wake up call and off I go to Rio de Janeiro.