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When we arrived it was raining and we had to walk around to find a hotel that we thought was worth the money they were trying to charge. It took us about 5 hotels/hostels before we finally found one that had a nice room (Hotel Mercurio), and Mario talked them down to $50 from $88, since we have to leave at 6am tomorrow. We were going to go to the Isla Magdalena to see the Penguins there (there are quite a bit - somewhere around 150k!) - but it was raining - and we had already seen a few penguins to make the 5 hour trip not worth it. We grabbed a quick lunch and then spent the next few hours at an internet cafe (we've had a hard time getting any kind of connection in our rooms down here) to do some research on the next few cities - finding hotels, things to do, etc. It was pretty frustrating using the internet - as the city lived up to what we've read - the internet connection comes and goes here at the end of the world - even at the larger internet cafes - oh well. Later on, we had a small dinner at our hotel and will go to sleep early since we're getting up at 5:15am in order to eat and catch a ride to the airport. Tomorrow -> Buenos Aires, Argentina!
Food: Food in Chile didn't impress us too much overall. We never felt like we got a good breakfast for our entire stay here - when there were eggs, they were extremely watery and slimy, but mostly we were served bread and jam :( The one thing that was good was the availability of fresh seafood, which we enjoyed in Vina del Mar and in Patagonia. They also serve a "chile" sauce (tomatoes, onions and spices) with the bread at dinner that is very tasty. Pizza seemed to be very big on the Chilean menu - everyone was eating it and every corner had a Pizzeria.
Beer of Choice: We have 2 beers of choice - Cristal, for the Santiago area and Austral, for the Patagonia area.
People: The people here didn't seem to take much time to want to get to know us or engage in conversation. So many people smoke cigarettes here and smoking is still allowed in most places - even the airport terminal, work offices, hotel rooms and all restaurants (luckily for us it wasn't allowed on the bus!). Outside of the cities, horses are still used by some to get around and I've seen quite a few cowboy-looking men with their horses along the road. People here like to listen to a lot of old 80's music from the United States. Economy: Chile is one of Latin America's most developed countries. Copper accounts for about 1/3 of the countries exports - with industrial goods account for another 1/3. The services industry accounts for half of the countries GDP - and it's no surprise that the hotel costs are sharply higher compared to other Latin American countries (this was the most expensive place we have been so far - in terms of tourist costs). In Patagonia, the economy seems to be driven by tourism and the adventure sports such as fly fishing, climbing and backpacking, in addition to fishing exports (too bad for Patagonia when the Panama Canal opened!). Farming is also a significant part of the countries GDP - we saw quite a few sheep and cow ranches along the road. Santiago and the city areas seem very modern with a lot of businesses and commercial buildings. Much of the central valley is centered on wine production and farming.
Exchange Rate: 1 US dollar = 530 Chilean Pesos
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