Saturday, June 16, 2007

A couple hours at the mall

It is winter here and that means rain. We're hoping for a break in the weather but are sure the newly built septic tanks look like water wells. So, we went to the local mall to satisfy my curiosity.

The mall looks like any other mall-but different. There were several large stores-Falabella, Paris and Ripleys. And the many smaller stores in between. We found children's coloring books in the bookstore, not the toystore. In one department store, we were looking at a portable CD player and one salesclerk tried to help but soon found we spoke little Spanish. A few minutes later, a young Chilean man appeared and spoke some English. The other sales clerk was quite grateful and he seemed to have a little extra importance in his step because he was able to help the gringos.

Many shoe stores. I was surprised that shoes and clothes are as expensive as US prices, or so it seemed. An electric warming mattress was $100 USD and expensive athletic shoes available as well.

Shopping was limited-I'll have to go on my own to really browse....