Sky high

As I mentioned in my post last week, I was in Santiago. As I also mentioned, I was sick. I logged a lot of work hours, but not much else. I did, however, get to a Bikram studio while there, immediately after arrival in an effort to both physically wear myself out and manage to stay conscious until a reasonably respectable hour. I so craved a nap when they handed me my hotel key after my red eye flight from Houston, but knew it would forever keep me from adjusting to the time difference. So, off to my first yoga class in Spanish. I took the wrong subway line, and walked the wrong way after exiting the right subway line, but I made it. The class kicked my ass, but did have the intended results. I was both spent, and still conscious.

BUT, this post is not about the stinky, hot-as-Hades, Spanish Bikram class. No. It's about my one true tourist outing in Santiago (because we all know that we can't count my trip to Applebee's as, well, much of anything.)

This tourist outing happened immediately prior to my Applebee's outing though, and was mostly unplanned. I had ventured out to find some South American cough drops, which I was successful in doing just few blocks away from my hotel. These few blocks got me closer to the tallest building in Santiago, which happens to be the sixth tallest building in the world -- the tower at the Costanera Center. I figured this was my big chance, although in a very narrow time window, to get to see something of Santiago.

So I beat it over there and rode up the speedy 62-floor elevator, during which time my ears popped from the change in pressure, then exited to a breathtaking 360 degree view of the city.

It was really something. This is a city of somewhere between 7 and 9 million people. A city where approximately 3 million people pass through the subway system each day. It's big! With a lot of sky scrapers. I had no idea. And until I rode up to the top of the Costanera tower, I had no idea that it boasted so many of the worlds very tallest sky scrapers.

Three out of the tallest nine, in fact.

And here is what it looks like from the tallest of those three:

Just in case you need to land your helicopter.

It's quite pretty and green for such a large, heavily populated metropolis. I mean, just look at this

Still untouched, or very nearly so, and this is perhaps a sixth of the view from up there.

My trip to Santiago was not one of my best international experiences, but I have to admit, that this quick trip to the top was time well spent.