First posting. Day 2

Cool.  I´m writing a blog from Chile.  Alright.  Contrary to my Facebook doubts, I will blog as much as I can when I have the opportunity.
However, I´m tired now.  It has been a long rough day and computering in the common room is also tiring.
Some highlights, then.

There´s a food phenomenon here called "coffee with legs."  In an effort to get people to drink good imported coffee in Chile, the guy behind some cafes made it so pretty women in short skirts served coffee and flirted with the patrons.  It drew business.  It´s kinda like Hooters or Tilted Kilt.  I´d like to order a coffee and some photos, but I´m no smoot Derek Jackson of a photographer.  There are also seedier cafes that have no windows, and probably lousy coffee; you know what I mean.

I went on an adventure today to visit my embassy and the Wines of Chile office.  I learned how to ride the buses and metro here.  Alas, I was late to both destinations.  It turns out that hours for public reception are very early.  The weekend is now, so I must wait for Monday to try again.  I must visit the Wines of Chile office soon, for they may have the best resources to help me visit the other winery offices and vineyards.  To bide my time I´ve signed up for the hostel tour to Concha y Tora vineyards tomorrow.

Uh-oh.  A family with some rowdy young children has checked in as I write.  I am opposed to rowdy young children.  Haha, both girls are wearing princess costumes.  How strange.  I don´t understand families hostelling.
I suspect a few Aussies have also checked in.  I ought talk to them, in English.

My first two nights at Che Legarto hostel were on the top floor in a private room.  I wanted time and space to myself to get my bearings.  I decided to stay longer, so this morning I downgraded to a shared dorm until Monday morning.  This hostel is nice.  The infrastructure is weird and old, but I like how the place is run.  I will tell you that towels and handsoap are perks of the single room.  Surprising, but I have my towel like a good galactic citizen.  I prefer to eat supper in-house, provided enough other lodgers signed up; there is a minimum, or nothing happens.  Last night was fun.  We had Chilean supper and St. Patrick´s DAy drink specials.  I had to exlpain the holiday to some Israelis and Germans, a few of whom were cute girls.  There´s a group picture that they ought to email to me soon.
Did I tell you that CHile uses European power outlets?  They do.  I was not prepared for that, and I already owned a European adapter from my Italy trip in 2009.
After frustrating trial and error with several ATMs, I found which bank will accept my card for withdrawals.
This is weird: pay in foreign currency or credit cards at lodgings to avoid a very high sales tax.  Soooo, that means after I withdraw Chilean pesos, I must turn some of it back into dollars to pay my bill.  Seriously, avoiding the 20% tax is mathematically worth it.

That´s all for now.  I would write more, like about my flight in and airport experiences, but I´m tired of the common area commotions.  And I´m not sure, but people might be waiting on me to vacate the computer.