Since it is summer here, the riverbeds are dry and exposed, running empty and adjacent to the freeway, which is rangy, loopy and shocking disorganized. Against a backdrop of huge mountains, cars, jalopies and fruit trucks careen by the strange architecture of the city at amazing speeds. Santiago, a city of 9 million plus, seems to be a place wanting to tear out of the ground and compete with the landscape. There is evidence of building all around as cranes and nearly completed buildings are as prevalent as the older ones. The faintly precolumbian architecture has the ambiguous modern feel of the sixties lending the multitudes of glass faced skyscrapers a certain sense of being lost in time. Hot and tropical, it's strange to see snow covered peaks in the distance, reflected off the logjam of the many mirrors. The city spans miles and miles spilling over as smaller villages climb up the sides of the mountains and perch on the terraces. Our new friends Luis and Marie tell us that the smog in the winter hangs over the city like a white cloud obscuring the entire city, towering buildings, mountains, everything--and eliciting warnings to keep children indoors. The unusual makeup of the landscape combined with the size and density of the town holds the smog tight and close. It is both beautiful and surprising an I'm glad we're only here for several days!!