Changed hotels, next four days thru very early Saturday Am the16th I'm at the Hotel Libertador, named after Bernado O'Higgins, the liberator of Chile from the Spanish in early 1800's.  He went to Argentina and got San Marten to come to Chile after San Marten successfully freed Argentina from Spanish.  So O'Higgins is the Chilian father of his country, despite his Irish name (his father immigrated to Chile) and the fact that O'Higgins got San Marten to assist him.  The hotel has a fantastic location, smack in the middle of old town Santiago, just blocks from all the government and old historic buildings, and it is on O'Higgins .... Avenue.  The cab fare was only 10,000 cp, Chilian Pesos, see how fast I'm adapting, ten thousand here, ten thousand there, and I am not yet talking big money, and it only took a half hour to get here, despite the traffic, it's in the same small spot of the map, not the other end of the city of eight million people. The hotel is old, clean, on the main street, and does not have the posh the other hotels I've stayed at in S. America.  But I don't care, it's decent, clean and close to what I want to see.   After I got to the Liberator, checked in and couldn't get the room til after two PM, so they put my luggage in a closet, and off I went.  Down three or four of those pedestrian streets, but these are really crowded, and almost there I must have looked perplexed, cause an older Chilian lady in her broken college English asked if I needed help finding what I was looking at on the map.  I was only a block  away so that was an easy fix.  Now, that was at least the third Hispanic lady in S. America who asked if I was lost, or warned me not to go further along the road.  I'll accept the help with gratitude, without realizing why I am getting the voluntary help.    What I was studying the map for was the Pre-Columbian museum.  I spent about three hours there, saw it all, and the Spanish descriptions were translated into English... So it made more sense to me.  Ate in a regular Restaurante, wanted to get back to the hotel, so I ordered a hamburger and fries.  And that,
's what I got.  A hamburger patty on the plate, along with a big mess of fries, a small side dish of salsa, and an uncut bakery roll, and the catchup, mustard and hot pepper sauce in the containers on the table, and no napkins, even after I asked for one, for about twice the price of the McDonalds down the street that I didn't stay at because they didn't have Coke Zero (no calories or cafeine).  I confirmed the Chile GreyLines city tour I purchased  back in Des Moines for half a day Thursday, and then bought a whole day tour of Valporazo, the port city on the Pacific Ocean about 90 minutes west of here.  Then I will have half of Thursday and all day Friday to see some more of Santiago.   Think I will go out on the main drag in the opposite direction I took this morning on the way to the museum just to see what's there, before it gets dark (there my darling daughter, I am being careful).

First two pics are from the Pre-Columbian Museum in Santiago wooden carved statues showing the Polynesian influence on the mainland.  (Easter Island is off shore quite a way and has been part of Chile since 1888, but the islanders became citizens in the 1960's.  The 'neckless' is the Incan writing system, but experts differ if the knots on the strings are writing or only accounting, the knots have as yet not been deciffered.  The are grouped in tens, one string then has ten strings hanging from the first one.   They were worn-carried around the neck like a neckless.  And again the pedestrian streets crowded, and with street sellers of everything located everywhere.   Not too many pictures tonight because the download time is slower than a small crawling on sandpaper, and the internet only works on the second floor 'lobby'.   More after Valporazo tomarrow.