El Barrio

Dad took us to visit the place where the old family house used to be on Luis Beltran. I say ´used to be´because a developer bought 7 houses on the block to build a high rise condominium. The building is not yet finished, they are in the process of trying to sell the units while completing construction. We took a picture of the spot where the house was, right now, it´s the entrance to the parking garage to the condo (the black fence next to where dad and I are looking inside). Interestingly, the cross street of Luis Beltran is ´Colo-Colo´ (for all you soccer fans)!

We took a picture of the corner store on the opposite end of the block. Rod remembers walking to the corner store when he was 4 years old and it being such a far walk from the house. In reality, the distance is only 3 houses away, I guess little legs have to take much more steps so it makes the walk seem farther. Wait, did he still think it was far today? Rod is sleeping now (it´s 4:10 am), I´ll ask him tomorrow (LOL!)

Dad took us around the corner and a couple streets over to the apartment he lived in with Susie when Rod was born. This is also the house Susie lived in with Yayita Pilar (Rod´s other grandma) before she married Dad. The apartment is on the 4th floor at the end of the building.

We had lunch at an awesome hole in the wall that Dad used to go to all the time as a kid. We had empanadas and sandwiches that were HUGE! And it was so cheap! With the empanadas, sandwiches and beers all around, we only paid a little over $20 US! (In this picture, that´s my half-sandwich I shared with Dad, I could only eat 1/4 of it and half of an empanada). Empanadas are a traditional Chilean dish - it´s like a turnover filled with either cheese or meat and cheese. We are waking up early in the morning to go with Dad and Tió Hugo to get empanadas. Geez, that´s just in a couple hours, better get some sleep before I get left behind!