The eagle has landed!

Hola!!! Yo estoy en Chile! We landed this morning at about 7am chile time, 5am ohio time. Needless to say after the 12 hours of traveling we were all ready to get off the plane and start and exploring our destination. Upon arriving we had to get through immigration and customs and then we found our bus and off to the hotel we went. Because our plane arrived early we weren't able to check in until much later in the day, so even though we were tired and still in our travel attire we decided to face the city of Santiago.
The plan for the day was a city tour, with an actual chilean resident. We first went to a concentration camp were thousands of chileans were tortured. The idea behind it was similar to that of the Nazi's of Germany. While we were at the camp we actually got to meet one of the survivors from the camp. This man was in the camp when he was only 17 years old. he fortunatley escaped but his brother died there. It was horrific to see but also very moving to experience the true story from this one man. After the concentration camp we than went to one of the soccer stadiums in Chile. As you will know soccer is the main sport in chile and I have never seen a stadium that big before it was incredible. We unfortunately weren't able to go inside but I got lots of pictures from the outside (bobby).
Once stadium gazing was done we decided to stop and walk around the downtown area of Santiago. They have an out side sort of mall with lots of shops and lots and lots of people. We get to see the presidential palace, similar to the white house, and one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. 70% of the chilean people are catholic and these churches have been here for centuries. The final activity for the day was to go up the mountain and look out over the city. The ride up wasn't very fun because I thought we could fall over at any minute but reaching the top was defintiely worth it. The site was absolutely beautiful! We could see the entire city of santiago along with the mountains boardering each side.
Overall the first day in Chile has been great! One thing that is a little sad is the amount of stray dogs roaming around the streets. I guess I wasn't really expecting there to be different wild animals here. But I am sure my dad won't mind me bringing a few home :) Overall it is Maravilloso! Les amo Chao!