La Piscina de La Reina

A beautiful view of Santiago, from a pool! Swag. A free (and fancy) pool, accessible only to Carabineros and their families? Swag. My host dad... host uncle... 2, two host uncles... and antiguamente host aunt... are Carabineros. So... let's just say, we get in to the pool. (By the way, Carabineros are chilean police officers.) There are a lot of perks to being a Carabienero. Too many to list. But like: this pool, a hospital, free food at any police station, etc.

Anyway, so we went to this cool pool, because it was really hot. It's called La Piscina de La Reina (which means The Pool of the Queen). It's a beautiful pool and you can see Santiago really well. There's a restaurant, that serves chilean fast food (like completos), which is where we went. There's another one that serves fancy food. But that restaurant was getting ready for a wedding, so it wasn't open. The food is not free like the pool is, but it's cheap. We swam all day and I got rather tan, and a little burnt. It was a fun change from the other pool. And I really did feel like a Reina swimming in it. :)

this is the pool from where we were sitting. It's beautiful and gigantic

like most things in Chile, the pool is on a mountain (well... hill) so you can see the city.
 It's a tad bit smoggy, but it's still beautiful. 

these are some pictures I took of the pool with my bácan water proof camera.
They're rather random, but I think they're kind of cool.

The square building in the background is the restaurant,
I wish I had taken a better photo though.

that's my little cousin. You may have seen him in other posts.
the water goes up to his chin, in the shallowest part, so he hung out by the ladder.

Me and my host mom. <3

in order from left to right: grandma, sister, me, and little cousin. 

we took this this photo outside the apartment of my grandparents.
I can't believe that my little host brother is actually smiling for the picture.

these are porotos granados. It's a typical chilean dish for summer.
The beans look like green beans but with blotches of light purple,
and you take the beans out of there shells for the soup.
I'm pretty sure it also has corn, and some other veggies, but I'm not sure what.

and... I'm done.
8 hour drive home, time for a nap. ;)