Cruise, Day 2

Santiago is a nice place. After a 2 hour stroll through the city center, I had a new apprecaition for uniform sidewalks, public trash cans, normal color boogers, lush parks, palm trees, manicured flower beds, huge fountains, department stores, and no one peeing in public. I had an ice cream in leiu of McDonalds or Burger King and decided to have for dinner some of the oatmeal that I´ve been hauling around (you know, to lighten the load by 3 ounces and make room for souvenirs). Watched Erin Brockovich at the hostel with some others which reminds me that I got to watch Juno on the flight down here, a couple of times, and that is a movie i had actually really wanted to see. I liked it okay but sometimes I thought it was unrealistic and too ¨acty¨. I like the guy actor and Jason Bateman the best.

Yesterday I took my time leaving for the bus station since i didn´t want to arrive to the cruise port before I could board, there were several companies running nice motorcoaches to Valparaiso (an hour trip), every 15 minutes. I picked the first one and went to find my bus and there stood Roberta, Steve, Steve´s friend Arden, and Arden´s girlfriend Sarah. They were on my same bus and I didn´t even know they were still in Santiago. We arrived, checked in and were onboard by 1. By checked in I mean ¨successfully snuck my 3 liters of wine through the Xray security machine¨. We changed our dining table assignments so we could all sit together at the late seating. Actually we were supposed to meet and do it together but I got there first and there was no line to see the Maitre D or whatever...he could see we were employees in the computer which led to Alaska chit-chat and ultimately him giving us a cool waiter (a magician supposedly) and a table by the window. And just for good measure he said ¨Are all your friends beautiful like you?¨ (Picture me unshowered with camo basecall cap courtesy of Tanner and Dakota Midland Grain) I said ¨Yeah, especially the guys¨ which I thought was a good recovery.

My room is handicap accessible which is just a fancy way of saying BIG. I could do one, maybe two cartwheels if I wanted and there is a bench in the shower allowing me to shave sitting down (it is slippery though, which you would think the handicap old people would definitely have a problem with). I have a big bed and I loved unpacking all my stuff into ALL the drawers, using ALL the hangers, and especially the joy of being able to occupy the bathroom as long as I want. Speaking of, I feel the need to mention that my gastro-intestinal tract was very cooperative with central american street food (running on about 95% of its cylinders) which I thought was pretty good since I ate whatever I saw. However, system has not transitioned as well into cruise ship gluttonous intake. Let´s just say that apparently my digestional tract wants to help me lose weight by sending everything down the Gastro-Express. Its good to have my own room.

Steve and his friends plan to spend a week in Mexico after the cruise, so maybe that will be an option.

Today we are in a dumpy Chilean town and it was cloudy this AM, getting sunnier now. My plans for the day are to buy notecards for CPA studying purposes, find hair dye and a pedicure and eat about 4000 calories for dinner. I don´t know, how many calories do you think I ate last night? Shrimp cocktail, tomato soup, salad, breadstick, part of seafood risotto and chicken something, blueberry-apple crepe (sugar free), and creme brulee. Our table of 6 ordered 15 desserts between us. I told everyone that meant we were eating 2.5 desserts per person. They are lucky to have me, otherwise no one would tell them these things.