Hola mi amigas y amigos! after some technical glitches, like forgetting my password and the instrucciones in espanol....and we all know at this stage, me espanol es lamentablamente, i think i'm online and tech-ied up.
thanks to Bob sending HELP to google in English for me. now all i have to do is learn how to Skype...
i have been in Santiago for four days now and am in full sensory overload.

A free walking tour around Santiago was fabulous,and am 2cm shorter now.our guide Phillipe was informative, comedic and perfectly left of center. lots of political asides.we started of in the Plaza de Armas and i asked if he knew of the man selling Frases Immortales (immortal phrases), was he still around, i needed to buy some...he wasn't sure what i was on about (found in a book published in 2002), but he did seem to think a man was hauled off a year or so ago cos he was selling all sorts of weird writings etc. doesn't sound like the man, el hombre i was looking for....

Santiago is a curious, amazing and overwhelming place. covered in a thick brown blanket of smog, kinda like a two pack a day habit. went up to San Cristobel hill yesterday where there is the giant statue of the Virgin of Immaculate Conception, the Mother of Santiago. the air was so thick, could she breath she would've choked on it.

I went walking to the vegetable markets yesterday. am heartbroken by the poverty also evident in this city, only half a kilometre away from the S UV's and affluent neighborhoods, people who look like they have done a lifetime of work in a day, others sleeping in the sun in parks. hundreds of street dogs roaming the city's footpaths and parks. an emaciated black dog in a cardboard box, a one eyed dog napping in the sun, the limping dog with an old broken leg.
 
Today i did the artista cultura stuff. it seems like i have to bring out another Alice, the one that leaves the memory of yesterday behind to visit these places. the Bella Artes museum, Mavi, a contemporary arts museum as well as a collectivo of contemporary artists with a gallery/work space in the hood near the hostel. i have statue back and squinty eyes. 

Am off to Valparaiso tomorrow and am looking forward to the sea and fresher air, i will leave the rest of Santiago for my return.