Si Me Ven is a children’s Christmas song in Spanish. It roughly translates to “if you see me walking by.” And that’s what we’ve done a lot of since arriving in Chile: walking.

More words later, but here in photos are the things we’ve been seeing and doing.

We started our morning with a visit to Castille Hidalgo, in downtown Santiago. Here’s my friend Cami (we are traveling with Cami and her husband Bill). But take a look over Cami’s shoulder for the ultimate photobomb. You couldn’t pay me enough money to do that.

This is a statue commemorating the Mapuche people.

The circle garden at the palace, and below, Jack in the market. That’s mosaic made of broken tiles and glass.

Stray dogs are everywhere in Chile, for the most part looked after in a kind of benevolent neglect by the people. This one was working the palace grounds.

It took me about five minutes to find a cat at the marketplace. Cats tend not to be strays. This one’s name was Sol, and he worked at a jewelry booth.

It took me about three minutes to find wool at the market. On the bus ride out of Santiago to Valparaiso, I took advantage of the purchase.

We booked a place to stay via Air B&B, and it turned out to be absolutely lovely, in a quirky, Bohemian area of this seaside town. We ate pizzas out of that oven, made by the guy who did those murals.

And here are the pizzas, as beautiful as his artwork.

This is what the area looks like. Note the creepy baby that is the view from one of our windows. The nice seaside pic is out the other window. The blond kid Jack is talking to is from Switzerland. He’s been woofing in Chile for a few months.

This was actually on the drive up from Santiago, a bit out of order, but there you go. Chile isn’t about order and schedules much. :] More photos later, and we need to tell you the stories that go with some of them, but for now, these pictures will have to offer 1,000 words each. :]