Cerro San Cristobal

After our business visit and tour at Universidad Católica Football Club earlier this morning, we all headed back on the bus for our next stop of the day, Cerro San Cristobal hill. This hill is located in northern Santiago and is the second highest peak in the entire city. The hill was named by Spanish conquistadors. Cerro San Cristobal is the location of a zoo and Santiago's largest public park.

Students riding the funicular

Funicular track

We exited the bus at the bottom of the hill, and were ready to make our way to the top. Luckily, Cerro San Cristobal has a working funicular, which transported us to the top of the hill. This meant we didn't have to walk all the way to the top. According to Matt Raggi: "a funicular is like a gondola". The path of the funicular was very steep and the ride to the top was not very smooth. Karine and Keighan were both a little scared on our ride up. However, the views were amazing.

Once at the top, there was a large area for taking pictures of the view. There were also many little shops for  souvenirs and snacks. Everyone was starving by the time we got to the top of the hill and many people bought empanadas. You can never have too many of those! At the peek of the hill, there is a 22 meter statue of the Virgin Mary, overlooking the city. Although the views were incredible, they would have been more clear had there not been a large landfill fire that occurred outside the city earlier that morning.

Virgin Mary Statue

Overall, it was a really beautiful and breathtaking site. Cerro San Cristobal was also the starting point of the Santiago cultural city game. After our small break on the peak, we were all ready from the next adventurous activity in the city!

View from the top

Taking Santiago By Storm!

Hello to everyone who has been following our blog! I hope you are enjoying reading about the adventures we are taking on down here. Today's adventure was a big one. We participated in the Santiago City Game and it has been a loooong day.

Karine ready to take on the day

The objective was to explore the city and find out what makes this place so special, or as Jackie and Caitlin put it "we were dropped off on a mountain, explored, and then had to find our way back to the hotel." It is definitely a daunting task in a foreign country. I sure hope everyone has made it back by now (check back here tomorrow to find out!) We were so happy to have a much nicer day for this city game than the one in Buenos Aries. The hill we started on was the San Cristobal Hill and it was a gorgeous site. We had to take the funicular up to the top, which made those afraid of heights a bit nervous, but I think everyone can agree it was worth it! Our tour guide advised us to complete the tasks up on the hill first before descending into the city. First, we had to climb even higher on the hill to take a picture with The Statue of the Virgin...check!

Statue of the Virgin

We then bought a nice cup of local Mote con Huesillo and enjoyed it with some native Chileans. Given its appearance, the drink tasted surprisingly good, almost like iced tea.

My team( Me, Kevin, Brian, Karine, and Marta) getting some local flavor

My team got hungry afterwards and decided to grab a quick lunch and plan our next few stops. We decided to tackle the tasks we thought would be most intriguing. After lunch, we realized we would need to use the metro to get to our next task and departed. Marta, who thankfully speaks Spanish fluently, was able to ask a local where the closest stop was. Once we reached the metro, Karine and Marta left so Marta could go get a tattoo with Professor Gomez. Then, Kevin, Brian, and I set our sights on La Moneda where we could cross two more things off our list. The metro experience was a first for Kevin and he was surprised by how smooth the process was, minus those five minutes we got lost. We reached La Moneda Palace, where the president of Chile resides, and took a photo with some of the guards, as instructed. When walking towards Plaza de la Constitucion we ran into another group and chatted about how things were going for them. Stephanie told us the guards at the Palace were "her new favorite people." We could not disagree, I mean, look at that getup.

A guard at the Palace

We also enjoyed the Plaza because of the combination of beauty and history. The Plaza was surrounded by statues of the most influential former presidents and tons of Chilean flags, you can really feel the importance. We also interacted with few more locals and asked them to take pictures with us in order to get some more bonus points.
                                                                           

Selfies with statues 

Back on the metro, our next stop was another hill, the Santa Lucia Hill. The hill's original use was as a lookout point during the Conquista, so we had high expectations of the view. After loads of walking, we reached the bottom of the hill and started the trek up. It took a good chunk of time and a lot of stairs, but we climbed it successfully. After a few detours because of some refurbishments that were being done, we came across a stunning view of the city.
                                                                         

The climb was worth it!!!

 Although the climb was worth it, it also drained us. We decided to make our way back to the metro and take that the 11 stops needed to get back to our hotel. With each passing stop, the urge to lay down grew more intense. A short 15 minute ride later, we reached our stop. We got off the metro and found Chelsea, Jackie, and Caitlin also struggling to find where our hotel was. Along our journey, we came across a Dunkin' Donuts, and like the true Bryant students we are, had to get some. We also made a pit stop for water in order to stay hydrated! 

All in all, the city game was a good way to spend the day. For me, it opened my eyes to how expansive the city of Santiago is and how much culture there is within it. It also exposed us to some parts of the city we would not have seen if we had done a standard sightseeing tour.
                                                                             

The top of a museum 

Signing off with sore feet and burnt skin,

Matt Raggi

                                                                                           

                                                               

                                                                                                             

Universidad Catolica

           Have you ever been driving towards a stadium where you can see it in the distance and you can’t help but fidget in your seat like a little kid? If not, then picture it as your favorite restaurant with that dessert you know you’ll order. Good. Now you understand the feeling of anticipation I had while sitting in the presentation day dreaming about playing. Luckily, Sebastian Soria, the Commercial Manager of Universidad Catolica gave a very captivating and informative presentation to snap me and everyone else back to reality. Let’s begin…

The 1148 capacity stadium is home to Universidad Catolica. Not only does the club offer a professional level team, it offers numerous age level academy teams. They range from U10-U19 (mostly guys), with the most successful being the boys U15 team. In 2012 they won their age bracket’s World Cup, which was hosted by a little known club called Manchester United. These young athletes also have the privilege of attending the high school and the university associated/run by the club. There are two campuses: one that is focused on sports the other focused on academics. For athletes with financial trouble or unstable family life, the club and its business administration help pay for all or some of the tuition. Of these kids, many are from lower class families who depend on the success of their kid within Universidad Catolica’s soccer program. This pressure put on the kids is recognized by the club, and as a result they offer counseling and “life skills” classes. These athletes are taught to be good people with strong morals while getting a good education, and of course playing LOTS of soccer (I would transfer here, sorry Bryant Women’s Soccer).

                The market/industry for soccer is one of the largest in South America. They love their futbol! That being said, of Chile’s 18 million people population, the soccer industry brought in $157 million in revenue last year. The country has 32 professional teams, with Universidad Catolica being the 3^rd most popular. The club estimated that their fan base is about 1,176,058 people, with 61% being men. This number has increased in the last several years, as the club has transitioned into its 3^rd “legal structure.” They are now being operated by the group Cruzados SADP. Their focus is on growing the brand, improving their marketing campaign, and introducing more specialized business administration groups. Outsourcing different business departments is one of the main ways they save money. Their focus in marketing has been updating their website, app and social media platforms, as well as using the professional players in presentations and graphic campaigns. Overall, the clubs' revenue stream consists of the following, in order: Commercial, TV rights, Match day sales, and Transfers. The transfer process refers to that of the professional players. Universidad Catolica has a difficult time retaining their best players because other clubs offer higher salaries and better leagues. Despite this, the club is still producing the best players in the country, with 7 of them on the Chilean National Team.

                At this point I hope I haven’t bored you with too many facts, lo siento! We still need to talk about the field and how I could have slept on it, it was so beautiful. We started walking towards the main gates where all we could see was concrete. As we approached, the white walls disappeared and a sea of green spilled onto the landscape. The grass was glimmering from the sprinklers and Chilean sun (sorry if you’re reading this while seeing snow out your window). I could tell that my fellow soccer fanatics were itching to lace up and step on the field. Once that dream was crushed we replaced it by taking pictures on the most comfortable sideline bench I have ever seen (picture below & Bryant administration take notes). 

               

After, we headed to the locker rooms to check out the facilities. The visiting locker room is a shack compared to Universidad Catolica’s room. Our final stop was the half field line, about 10 rows up. We were able to sit and experience the stadium as spectators. Whether you’re a soccer fan or not, you could sense that Universidad Catolica has a passion for its' athletes and a special atmosphere on game days. 

Santiago City Tour

Funicular of Santiago

On Tuesday after an amazing visit to a soccer stadium, our city tour started at the San Cristobal Hill, where we took a cable car called the Funicular of Santiago to reach the top of the hill. The cable car ride was a very fun experience even though some of us very slightly scared of the ride like my friend Emily. The view on top of the hill was spectacular, we guys had Empanadas for a snack (Our favorites on this trip) and enjoyed the stunning view while understanding the city game side by side by our very own tour guide Francisca.

Spectacular view of  the Santiago City! For the city game we were divided into groups of four and five and were given instructions as to how to go about the game. My group had my friends Sarah, Claire and Vraajesh in it.  We started by walking up to the top of the hill to the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and took some nice pictures there. The statue  was amazing and the view of the entire city was even better from the top. Sarah especially enjoyed the view a lot and was going bizarre taking pictures. On our way down from the hill we stopped for a cool refreshing local drink called the Mote Con Huesillo, the drink was peach flavored with grains inside. (Claire loved this drink!)

Sarah and Claire enjoying the Mote Con Huesillo

After enjoying the cool refreshing drink, we took a cab to the La Moneda Palace where the seat of the president of republic Chile is located. The palace's architecture had a pure neoclassical style with Roman Doric influences to it. Just to give a little background on the construction of the palace , it was built by Joaquin Toesca who had worked on many public buildings in Colonial Chile, The palace was designed to become the new royal mint of Chile and it was completed in 1805.  In front of the palace is the Plaza De La Constitucion where there were statues of former presidents of Chile on 3 different sides. The plaza also had many local stalls inn the middle,  one of the stalls there attracted a lot of crowd where small robots were playing soccer, Vraajesh and Sarah both found that really cool and had fun watching.

La Moneda Palace!

From the plaza we took the metro to go to the Museo de Aire Contemporaneo a also called the MAC located at BellasArtes. The metro ride was very fun and challenging experience because of the language barrier but courtesy of Sarah, our Spanish expert, the rest of the group managed well. The walk to the museum was really nice after getting off from the metro, even though everyone was tired because of the heat we still managed to find our way clicking pictures of each other and talking.

 

Museo de Aire Contemporaneo

 Our city game ended with an experience that we would never forget as the cab driver after driving us for around 40 mins got us to the wrong hotel. Each of us were trying our best to communicate with the cab driver and explain him. Claire tried her best to mix the little bit of Spanish she knew with English to explain him, even our Spanish expert Sarah was unable to do so. Finally after getting fed of the cab driver we walked around and asked for our way back to the hotel. A small cab ride became a great adventure for all us something that we would never forget. But overall we had a great experience working as a team and discovering the city together.  

Viña del Mar

     Holla friends and family! We are some lucky students! Viña del mar is our newest location, reminding us of Miami with the lively streets, tourists and crashing ocean waves.  There is a salty smell and the temperature is perfect for a beach day. With the afternoon off a group of students decide to walk over to the beach and take advantage of the little time here in Viña del mar. Sunscreen is a must as some of us already have sun burns. The beach was completely packed with vacationers and the waves were ginormous! Still some boys were daring enough to swim in the ocean despite the waves. Other students enjoyed views from the rooftop pool at our hotel. Sarah went to el mercado (the market place) and found great hand made souvenirs to take home like bracelets and small glass decorations. Our afternoon off in Viña del mar was very enjoyable and gave us time to really explore this beach area.  
     At night we had a group welcome dinner planned which we were all looking forward to. It was a short walk from our hotel in the casino.  On that walk some of us got sprayed from the giant splashes of the waves!   The restaurant was called Santa Brasa and the dinning room had windows with ocean views surrounding the room. I don't think feeling hungry on this trip is something we feel often. The food has been amazing in both Argentina as well as in Viña del mar, Chile.  During dinner we enjoyed empanadas, meat plates, sausage appetizers and for the main course we had either ribs or sirloin.  Dessert was also served with a choice of ice cream or flan.  One high light  to dinner was singing Taylor happy birthday ! (Feliz Cumpleaños Taylor!!)  We also shared some laughs together as a group trying out the spoon challenge of hanging a spoon on your nose. Srdan was quite good at this game.  We were a well behaved group at dinner and then, Mike managed to take Steve's chair away right as he was about to sit and Steve fell (it was a good laugh). I believe we all enjoyed the time spent together at the dinner table. In South America meals are very important and are looked at as a time to relax, socialize and to fully enjoy your food.  I think we have grown to appreciate meal time more and to taste your food rather than rush out of a restaurant.  I know we will all be sad to leave the beautiful Viña del mar but we are excited to see and explore the city of Santiago! Keep following us for updates on our amazing journey in South America!

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