Santiago

We spent a couple of very pleasant days in Santiago in Las Condes. We had been to Santiago twice before - once in 2003 and once in 2006. In fact, Arn spent 4 weeks in Seattle in 2006 in Spanish school.

After our time there this year, we were struck by how far Santiago has come in the past 6 years. The city is definitely cleaner than before and there is a massive amount of construction going on. We were both surprised to see how much construction of new universities (or expanded campuses) is happening right now. It has to be a good sign of things to come if more and more young people are going to college here. The economy here overall seems to really be moving forward. As a point of comparison, GDP per capita here in Chile is roughly where the US was during the Kennedy administration. That compares favorably with Ecuador and Peru which are stuck with a GDP per capita akin to the US around 1900.

We had another great dinner at "Las Vacas Gordas" - our favorite steak place here in Chile. We also had an opportunity to try another location of the Peruvian "Astrid y Gaston" and it was also yummy!