We took a city tour today of the old and new sections of town. We spent time at Plaza de Arms, La Moneda presidential palace (we even walked into the center 2 courtyards) and ended at St. Christopher’s hill where there is a 15 meter statue of the Virgin Mary on top of the hill. We climbed the 199 steps to the top and had a great view of the city. The Presidential Palace is only the office of the president and elected officials. The president still lives in their own home. The history of the office is that in 1971, the people elected Salvadore Allende who was a socialist. Nixon and the US were very nervous and sent money to stage protests against Allende. At that time, Augusto Pinochet agreed to overthrow the government and restore democracy. Rumor has it that America helped Pinochet to do it. On Sept 11 1973, he stormed the presidential palace and took over the country. Unfortunately, it took him 17 years to allow free elections as he had promised in the beginning. Many people vanished during his dictatorship. In 1989, he was voted out of office and he fled the country. He was captured in 2005 and is now awaiting trial for corruption, theft of money, and crimes of persecution of opponents. Of course he is 93 now and ill. Chile elected its first woman president, Michelle Barchili, to start in March. She is also a bit of a socialist. The people really seem to like her and are very hopeful she will continue the reforms of her predecessor. We learned that Santiago was discovered and colonized by Pedro De Valdivia. The name means Saint James (San Diego). Much of the original buildings were built with a lot of marble. That is because marble was used as ballast for the ships returning from Spain to transport Inca gold back to Spain. Chile was a Spanish colony until 1818 when it was liberated by O’Higgins a Chilean born son of Irish immigrant parents. Santiago is a city similar to LA. It is surrounded by mountains and has a lot of smog. The climate is warm and dry. One of the native drinks is a “Mote con Huesillo” or wheat with peach drink that is boiled. It actually tastes quite good.