A Ride on the Subway

We took a trip to downtown today with Dad, Tio Hugo and Tia Luci to meet Dad's best friend, Jaime, and his family.

First, Tia had to drop off a custom-made curtain for a client that lives in a really nice neighborhood high on a hill. We took a quick drive around the neighborhood and stopped by to see the soccer stadium for La Universidad Catolica. They are one of the top 3 teams in the country. Dad is a fan; Rod and Tal are fans of Colo-Colo. La Catolica has a game on Saturday which we may try to go and see.

Next to Tia's client's house was a small playground with an interesting jungle gym. You can't pass by a jungle gym and not climb it - Rod was too afraid to try, I think because it was too high. (LOL!!)

We parked the car and took the subway to downtown. Chile has the best subway system, it's clean and brightly lit, just like Japan's except the Chilean subway is more decorated and colorful with murals on the walls. The cost is about 60 cents to ride (one way) no matter how far you go on the line. Japan's system charges you for the length of the ride so you have to know in advance how far you're going, if you decide to go further, you have to pay the difference at the end of the ride. Dad said they started building the subway system when he left Chile 35 years ago and now they have extended it to 5 separate lines. Tio Hugo told Rod there was a recent incident of someone painting graffiti in the subway (Chile has a big graffiti problem - there's graffiti everywhere). But I guess since people take so much pride in the subway system, the public grabbed the graffiti 'artist' outside and starting beating the crap out of him. Nice!

What would've taken an hour by car took us 12 minutes by subway. We could use this system in Hawaii. Any 'anti-rail' supporters listening out there? Yeah, I'm talking to you!