Chile Plus3: Charlie Horse (Post 12)

      Today was the day that we all visited the Chilean stock exchange Bolsa. We traveled out this morning to Santiago, approximately an hour and a half away. When arriving, we were advised to carry only the bear essentials, and to seriously watch out for thieves. We were described situations where tourists were robbed of there cameras mid-photoshoot. With that setting the ton, the entire group roamed the streets in a tight, and very aware pack.
     At Bolsa, we were all brought to a comfortable conference room where we were addressed by a Bolsa Presenter who showed us a brief movie and powerpoint. We learned of the history of the trading floor, the most prosperous stocks, and the roles of the brokers and traders. We learned also that trading is all electronic now; rather then the loud, hustle-bustle of the New York Stock Exchange, transactions are quietly produced on computers and specially designed software by the engineers of Bolsa. Unfortunately for my company group, the trading floor was closed due to construction, making the visit quite short and not too eventful.
    After our investigation of the stock exchange, we meandered for a little bit around Santiago. We eventually went to a national history museum--where we were celebrities to many Chilean students--and than found the "white house" of Chile, the president's home. It was very similar to Buckingham Palace in the sense of appearance, architecture, and the very disciplined guards standing around the perimeter. Unfortunately, we never saw the president...
    With hunger that almost drove everyone to insanity, went to Donde Augusto (Chile famous seafood place) where I had some of the best salmon I have ever had in my life! Being from Maine, I have had great great seafood,  but this restaurant definitely makes a mockery of many of my previouse seafood meals. However, there had to be some flaw with such a perfect meal, and this was essentially a worst case scenerio situation; CHARLIE HORSE. In my 19 years of living, I have never once in my life had a charlie horse so bad. My leg, with every passing second, locked tighter and tighter into cramped muscle. No tactics that I was familiar with to end the paralyzing pain worked. But, after 2 minutes of such a struggle/battle, I left the table and took laps--and got attacked by many restaurant promoters--, and was able to work enough blood through my leg to make a recovery. Viewers, I wish this pain upon no one, not even my worst enemies...
   To wrap up the day, we went to San Cristobal. This was a beautiful mountain with many statues and vendors that stood 600 meters above the massive city of Santiago. It truly was breath taking. After buying some great souvenirs for myself and the family, we took a 2 hour bus ride home. Tomorrow, I honestly don't know what's going on, but we are heading out at noon. Wish me luck.