It started as a simple desire to get ice cream and gum while we waited for an antique store across the street to open (which it never did). We paid for the items (or attempted to) with a 10,000 chilean pesos bill ($20 canadian). The lady at the till examined the bill for some time and then disappeared into the back. She came back finally with a second person and both excitedly tried to explain something to us. We thought the bill was too big so we showed her we only had the 10,000 peso bills (damn bank machines). Then she held up the bill we gave her to the light to show that there is no hologram and once we looked at it, it was an obvious fake. like photocopied with the silver security strands glued on. ~ sigh~ so then she gave it back and we paid with another bill. And I put it in my pocket, not sure what to do with it. She waved her finger in a "No" motion (as in do not use it) and made the international gesture for handcuffs. We are lucky that she could tell we were hapless gringos totally like fish out of water and we just left the store.
Jason wanted to keep the bill as a souvenir but I thought explaining that to the guy with the rubber gloves at the airport did not seem like a good idea. So the bill has been ripped up.
Other than that adventure, Santiago, Chile is a great. Nice metropolitan city. We can't get a whole lot done as I start melting by 2pm. We did see a Frida Kahlo and Deigo Rivera exhibition, the museum of fashion, and antique store, the vegetarian restaurant (only one in santiago - thank god i found tofu i was dying on the boat with out it), and the pool.
On that note..... I am off to the pool.
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