Buenos Dias Estudiantes!

Hi First Graders!
I said good morning to you in Spanish, because that is the official language of Chile.

We left to come here on an airplane on Saturday night, and slept on the plane. When we woke up and looked out of the window, the sun was up, and we could see the Andes Mountains. Aren't they beautiful?

The Andes are covered with snow all year long.

We landed in Santiago, the largest city in the country. We will be staying here for a week, then taking a trip down to the south part of the country. Chile is near the ocean. If you look at a map, you will know what ocean I am near. 

Santiago has all of the modern things that you can see in any city in the USA, and some old-fashioned things too. We saw a horse pulling a delivery cart along the street right beside a city bus.




The people here wear clothes just like ours, but wear special traditional clothes for holidays and performances. Sunday was a good day to arrive here, because it was their national holiday called Navy Day.  There was a street festival and a parade, and lots of things to see. These dancers are dressed in old fashioned costumes. They are doing the cueca. Say it like this: QUAY - KA.

The cueca is the national dance of Chile.



Some other interesting clothes that I have seen are military uniforms. These sailors in the Chiean navy were marching in a parade. Every country has its own special uniforms - different from all of the others.

Do you like to see a parade?



Did you ever ride on an elevator or an escalator to go up in a building? Here they have elevators built onto the sides of big hills to help people go up. They are called ascensors. Say AH-SEN-SORES. These are the tracks. You go into the little red building and get in a little car, and it takes you up.

 

Do you know what this sign means?

 

That's right. It means stop. You could tell from the shape and color of the sign, but the letters are different. Instead of STOP, the signs here have PARE.  Say PAH - RAY.  The sign is written in Spanish, but it means the same thing.

 

Here is one more picture. This is not a soldier. He is a police officer. His uniform fooled me! His dog has a uniform too! I have mostly seen police walking around the city, not driving in police cars.

 

 

That's all from my Sunday in the city. I will write again before your summer vacation after I have a chance to go out and see some more things.

 

 

Your friend,

Flat Stanley