Sunny Sunday

Hello THIRTY FIVE followers!

As Mads mentioned, we created our own little adventure on Sunday. There's this hill right smack dab in the middle of Santiago called Cerro San Cristobal. It's been tempting us the whole time we've been here ... but we just didn't have the willpower to climb it until Sunday, because it was such a nice day! Mads wore shorts (scandalous!) and Allison wore a sporty tank top. We're coming to find that Chileans might not sweat. Like, ever. As we were huffing and puffing up the hill, packs of Chileans in sweatshirts, sweaters, and wool dresses passed by us effortlessly. And, come to think of it, I have yet to encounter a smelly Chilean, even when I'm smushed into the armpit of one on a crowded Metro.

Anyways. The hike itself, minus the perspiration, was quite lovely. I'll just show you pictures instead of attempting to illustrate with my feeble words.

That's Mary. Mary = the goal of our hike.

More of those pretty orange flowers (which are probably weeds ... but don't tell me that).

On top of the hill sits a big big statue of Mary, an old church, an outdoor auditorium-of-sorts for Mass on Sundays, lots of pretty flowers, and a postcard stand. Oh, and we passed by a zoo on our way up (story about the zoo, involving a six-year-old named Sergio, a fake elephant, and some colored pencils coming up ... read on).

After scaling down the mountain in an oh-so-scary elevator thing, we treated ourselves to frozen yogurt. We're kind of obsessed with this place called Yogen Früz in the cutesy neighborhood of Bella Vista. We invite you to listen to the Yogen Früz theme song on their homepage. I really wish I could have this song automatically playing when y'all access our blog. But I'm not that tech-y! Sheesh.

In other news, Madeline and I started volunteering at Dr. Luis Calvo Mackenna Children's Hospital today. Apparently it's the best in Santiago. We dressed up in our volunteer garb (white long-sleeved t-shirts, jeans, Sperrys, and official nametags ... we looked kinda ridiculous), brought some markers and colored pencils, and waited patiently at a squatty little table in a waiting room for the children to flock to us. Some had to be coaxed, some cried when handed a crayon, some were extremely interactive. We made a new best friend named Sergio. He's 6. He told us the elephant at the zoo on Cerro San Cristobal is fake, because the real one escaped during the earthquake. So the city tried to cover it up by putting a mechanical elephant with a rotating head in a cage. Hmmm. This kid also told me my cat drawing looked like a frog, and since it definitely didn't, I'm going to say that he might have been bending the truth. 

But we'll be sure and notify you of elephant sightings.

Until then!