Finally made it to Santiago

I walked all day today...feel like a missionary again. I saw a family I havent seen in 10 years. By the way, I{m in a small internet cafe and the keyboard is in "Spanish" so you{ll have to ignore some of the typos. I have eaten 4 completos aka...hot dogs (chilean style) since I arrived. They{re actually not as good as I remember..but still not bad. They pile on tomatoes, avocado, and mayo. I should probably eat something else.

A short list of things I did today....

Saw more than a 1000 dogs (i might not be exaggerating...really)
Stepped in dog *&"! 3 times
Tried to kick a dog once, missed, but avoided "una mordida"
Was licked by a mean looking but very nice rotweiller (which apparently sleeps in my bed)
Saw a dog eat its own vomit (sorry if that grosses anyone out)
And ate... yes....another hot dog

Did I ever mention there are a few dogs down here?

Alright, that[s all for today.

I{m tired.

I thought I said Chile´po....
After approximately 32 hours of traveling and just 30 minutes away from Santiago the fog decided to roll in, and our plan decided to go elsewhere. So my wishes to see Argentina were granted. I´m hanging out in Mendoza, a beautiful city that reminds me of Europe (even though I´ve never been to Europe) just on the other side of the Cordilleran (The Andes Mountains) from Santiago. I could actually see Santiago pretty well from the sky and could pick out all my old areas even though it was 2am. Emily would be proud of my birdseye mapping skills. So this morning I´m hanging out at a very nice hotel hoping I don´t have to pay last night´s bill. I also went for a little walk this morning around the downtown area. I could tell the air was quite polluted by the small cough in the back of my throat by the time I finished. Being winter here there is a bit of an inversion, but overall the sky is pretty clear and it isn´t too cold. It´s amazing how many feelings from my mission are rushing back being down here. It´s been eight years and just seeing Santiago from the air and walking around Mendoza has reminded me a bit of what it was like to be down here. My journal entries don´t seem to conjur up the same emotions. It will be interesting to see how I feel after being here for a full month. I´ve talked a little about looking for a job down here, but not sure if I´m being very realistic about that. I typically make decisions based on how I feel about things, and I´m pretty sure a month will tell me if I could handle it down here.
Last night I met a guy named Raul as we headed to the hotel. He´s from Peru, probably in his mid-40´s and works in exporting/importing heavy machinary. He was asking me a lot of questions regarding exporting back hoes from the US. Fascinating, I know. I volunteered to look up which states had sales taxes and if there were tariffs in the US for exporting such things. While I´ve wanted to get involved in more non-profit work, I´m also interested in learning more about export/import with the US and South America. Raul also happens to be from Cuzco where I´ll be in just over a month. Now I have a friend there that I can visit. His sister owns a hostel in Puno where Ned, Emily, and I will be for a day or two. Anyway, I think people are waiting to use this so I´ll wrap up. Until my next entry...which hopefully isn´t too far off. Signing off from Mendoza...