South America Part 23 - Santiago Navidad (aka X-Mas) Eve Style

We woke up (sort of early for Latinos - 8am) and made our way to the "help yourself" breakfast at the hostel. It also included a "clean it up yourself" dish washing service.

After chinwagging with fellow aussies at the hostel, we walked down to the Museuo de Bellas Artes - the allegeded "old school" art gallery which made the National Gallery of Australia look like that creepy art gallery in Vina Del Mar... It was an interesting collection of old and new school art, including a collection of Ninos Artes (Children Art) which was trying to emulate all different artisitc styles from the Egyptians to Post Modern Modernism (or something). As an added bonus - we got in for free because it was X-Mas Eve.

We stopped by at a Phamaracy - and as per usual - no one speaks english. The first time I attempted to buy something was in Buenos Aires - when I wanted Atheletes Foot cream (ooh la la) - they were trying to sell me band-aids. Today - I needed some cold and flu tablets but we were armed with Ant's English-Spanish dictionary. I think I was starting to confuse them when I pointed at the spanish word for "drowsy" and was saying no!

We hadn't realised but for Chileans after midday on X-Mas eve is a public holiday. So we had to rush to the Pre-Colombian Art Gallery/Muesum (which closes at 2pm). Thankfully - we had enough time to explore all the collections of pre-colombian art (ie - statues, gold, pottery, clothes) from the Aztecs, Incas and Mayans to name a few. Everything was great - and everything was in English (icing on the cake). Another great thing about the collection is that you never get to see any of this sort of stuff in Europe, Australia or the states. Also Ant bought a replica of the cat pottery piece (see picture on this post) - it is very cute.

We have spent the rest of the day lounging around near the hostel (either attempting to get lunch or blogging). Tonight - we have paid $8000 pesos to be part of the hostel x-mas dinner / bbq (where we have to help cook, clean and cater). Hopefully my hard core cold and flu tablets will allow me to drink (you can only take 4 per day!).

We are dreading the next couple of days (X-Mas day followed by a Monday where everything latino is closed). But we have been assured by a fellow Aussie (ex Colombian) traveller that X-Mas eve is a bigger thing here than in Australia.... Only time will tell...

Adios for now.