DAY 9

Hello everyone,

Well today was very interesting. Janet and I got up kind of late, somewhere around 10:00, (which is the same time as the East Coast in the US). We had some breakfast, then went about our day. We were planning to study Spanish all day, however the library was not open, and the school is closed on the weekends. There are not that many places to study, so we decided to take the train to the town next to ValParaiso. The town is called Vina Del Mar, and appartnely it is a tourist hot spot during the warmer months. (It is winter here.)

The train was actually pretty nice, however you had to purchase a train card for like 1000.00 pesos, (which sounds like alot, but it is only two dollars.), Then you had to purchase your ticket, which for Janet and I, was a combined price of 740 pesos, which is slightly over a dollar. So it is extremely Cheap.

After about a 20 minute train ride, we arrived in Vina Del Mar. This town is gorgeous. It is similar to Val Paraiso, but about 40 times more clean. The rich chileans have their vacation homes here, and it appears to be well kept because alot of toursist come here. We decided when we got there to go directly to the beach, (La Playa), because it was a very nice day out. After walking through countless street vendors we arrived at the famous beach of Vina Del Mar, which as pretty nice. Janet and I took a short little nap on the beach, or atleast I did, and then we walked around downtown Vina Del Mar.

By this time it was gettin a little late, so we got back on the train and arrived back in dirty Val Paraiso. And that was that. Now Janet has dinner prepared...so I gotta go.

Kareem: The house we are living at gave us a group deal. For 4 weeks (4 semanas), it is 80,000.00 Pesos. or Ochenta Mil Pesos. This is equivalent to 160.00 US dollars. So you really cant beat that. Plus the lady here, really has helped with the spanish, and she also does out laundry. So it is really a great deal. You cant find much cheaper then that. 160.00 for 4 weeks is really good. Its actually less than 160.00 because 1 us dollar is 520 pesos.

Anyways gotta run,

Steve and Janet