With the Good comes the Bad

Things have been going so well here; they were bound to change, right?
12/14/07
Today was a very interesting day. It started out with our electricity going out because of that outlet I mentioned the other day. So the concierge attempted to fix it for about 2 hours, and then finally decided it would be best to call an electrician. We did get everything working, except the outlets in the kitchen. The electrician is coming tomorrow to hopefully fix the problem.

My plan for today was to walk downtown to see all the historical monuments. Pretty much every book I read about Chile before we moved down here said to be aware of thieves. The books talked about how they would cut the strap to your purse, or cut the bottom of it, or yank your necklace off your neck. I had taken many precautions to prevent this such as buying a slash proof purse and not wearing my wedding/engagement rings. On our way downtown we stopped at a store to buy water and the cashier told me to take my necklace off or somebody was going to tear it off. I fiddled with it for a second but couldn’t get the latch to open, so Nick and I agreed…nobody has tried to steal it thus far it is okay. As we continued on our journey we sat down on a bench to look at my little map, which made the perfect target. I wasn’t paying attention with my face looking down focusing on the map, and my necklace dangling just asking for trouble. I caught someone out of the corner of my eye walking rather close, but before I could think of what he might be doing he had his finger through my necklace and was tearing it off. I managed to say “That Bitch”. Once I said that Nick knew what the guy had done and started running after him. The guy soon found that Nick was faster than him and dropped the necklace thinking Nick would be satisfied and stop chasing him, but he was wrong. Nick stopped picked up the necklace and started chasing the guy again, so the jerk ran across the busiest street in Santiago. Luckily Nick did not follow him. So we were fortunate that nobody got hurt and we got the necklace back so that a**hole didn’t make any money off of us. We learned a lesson to follow people’s advice.
12/15/07
Well maybe we didn’t learn that lesson. Today was also an interesting day. The electrician came and said he had to come back tomorrow to replace all the wires that ran from the breaker box to the kitchen…at least that is what we think he saidJ
After he left we got ready to go to this flea market I have heard a lot about. A person is supposed to be able to get whatever they might want at this place. I noticed the streets were rather quiet and blamed it on the Saturday morning, but once we got to the subway it was a crazy madhouse. We rode the subway a few stops, transferred to another train, and while we were on that one Nick got a funny look on his face. Somebody had stolen his wallet right out of his front pocket. Sneaky bastards! All they ended up getting was our “BIP” card, which is to ride the subway and buses…it had $15 on it, his visa and bankcard, and his id’s. So it could have ended up a lot worse. He had all his money in a separate pocket. We continued to our destination, found a call center, and called my parents since I had made copies of all our cards for them. My dad was the only one home, and he didn’t know where that folder ended up, so we took the subway home, got my cards, and called to cancel them. The a**hole had already made 4 charges with the visa card. After this trying day we decided to indulge ourselves by going to the store and buying a bottle of pisco sour…the margarita here. Once we got home and sat down the building started to shake…it was a damn earthquake!! It was only a tremor, but it was the first time either of us had felt any kind of earthquake. What a day!!!

Hopefully the electrician comes tomorrow and fixes the outlets, and that will start us off on a better foot.

Here are some pictures I managed to take:

This is the San Franciso de Borja. It is church for the police I believe.

This is the Palacio de la Moneda...the White House of Chile. The president used to live there until all chaos broke out in 1973...my book says this image was on TV screens around the world then while it was being bombed.

Here are some eel for Uncle Bud´s get rich quick plan!! This is at the fish market at Mercado Central.

He might not be a looker, but he does have character.