Cultural Center, Ice Cream, and Other Fun in Santiago

Today, we visited the Cultural Center housed in the basement of the President's Palace. It contains a weaving and woodcraft gallery, a couple of photographic art galleries, and an activity room for kids. (There is also some sort of movie theater, but it was closed for a private event.) It was a great way to pass some time on a rainy day.

Centro Cultural La Moneda

When the museum closed for lunch at 2:00,  we walked over to Heladería Emporio La Rosa, seeing lots of interesting things along the way. The shop claims to be one of the 25 best in the world, and there were some unique flavors to choose from. I tried two new-to-me flavors: rose and honey made from the ulmo flowers that grow in Chile.

(Side story: Upon arrival at the ice cream shop, Clay decided he had never needed to go to the bathroom so badly in his life, and of course, the shop didn't have a bathroom. The nearest public bathroom was a block away, inside a museum. I trotted him over there and sent him into the restroom, and he promptly returned to tell me he wasn't tall enough for the urinals and that all the stalls were locked. I then took him into the women's restroom, and completely scandalized the janitor, who quickly kicked us out and told us we had to use the bathroom "para niños." That turned out to be a locked room, and we were supposed to call someone on an intercom to have it opened. My Spanish intentionally became very poor at that point because I wanted the lady to just let us in since Clay was hopping around doing a crazy potty dance. Instead, the janitor went to get the security guard, who went to the desk where there was supposed to be, but wasn't, someone to answer the intercom for the locked bathroom. The security guard gathered up the key, left his post, and finally opened the bathroom door for us. It was really a wild time, but thankfully Clay was able to hold it, and we didn't cause any more of a scene in the museum!)

Sights of Santiago:
The President's Palace,
Bandera del Bicentenario,
lovely street art, pop-up bookstore,
animated soldiers selling Moscow Mules,
the national library's columns covered in lifejackets
to honor refugees, the entrance to the museum where
I took Clay to the bathroom, and a graffitied sculpture

Heladería Emporio La Rosa

After eating our ice cream, Jeff and I wanted to go see the fish market. The kids weren't interested in that, so we brought them back to the apartment before heading out on our own. On our way to the market, we shared a Chilean "completa" (hot dog with "everything"), just to say we had tried one. We saw (and smelled!) the market, and then we wandered through a big park, catching sight of a beautiful rainbow. We stopped briefly at the National Museum of Fine Arts since it was right there in the park. Eventually we ended up in a very fun area, with lots of patio restaurants, and had a wonderful dinner at Quitral.

Completa, rainbow over a monument,
Mecado Cental--outside and inside

National Museum of Fine Arts

Date night at Quitral