The Presidential Palace

On Sunday the 18th, we attended church in the Javiera Carrera Ward in the Javiera Carrera Stake.  Our 2 Elders and 2 Hermanas did a wonderful job on the power point about the Capilla Abierta that they will have in this ward in 3 weeks.  It was a pretty big ward.  I was privileged to be able to play for Sacrament Meeting once more.
     I spent the rest of the day trying to get the fotos of our trip to Santa Lucia downloaded so I could get the blog done for last week.  UG! I fought with the computer all afternoon!  But it was finally posted right before bed time.  The fotos didn't end up exactly where I wanted them, but they are all there so all is well.
    Monday morning we had 3 service calls to do.  One was a broken bed.  The Elders called and said that they sat down on their bed and it broke in to.  They have a wood bed with 2x6 sideboards.  Really don't think that just sitting on the bed would break that board---maybe jumping or karate kicking would snap it---but sitting?  Maybe one day we will actually hear what really happened but for now the bed is repaired.
     Tuesday was temple day.  Oh how we cherish this day.  It is so nice to get out of the world and feel the peace and the love of our Heavenly Father.  We were invited to lunch by the Clarks.  They are temple missionaries from California.  We really don't know them at all so it was good to sit down with them and get acquainted.  When we got back to the office, the young missionaries again had taken over our desk and computer so we left and walked home early.
     To visit the Presidential Palace, you have to get an appointment at least a month early.  You have to bring your passport, no backpacks or purses, and of course Elder Thompson had to leave his Leatherman home!  The palace construction began in 1784 and opened in 1805.  It was the mint house where all the coins were minted for Chile from 1814-1929.  Its nickname is La Moneda for this reason.

I again borrowed a foto from the internet cause my camera would not take this wide of a shot

This is the front of the palace.

We entered through the back door

a bunch of school children just finishing their tour

It was a beautiful sunshiny day.

back of palace, statue of President Arturo Alessandri in the Citizenry Square

We were about 15 minutes early for our appointment.  We had to catch a bus, then get on the metro to arrive without the headache of driving!

There are government office building all around the palace.

We got to the door and had to hand over our passports, which they kept till we left.  We then had to go through a metal detector.

We entered the Orange Tree Garden

The font in the middle of the garden was being repaired

Here is a wide angle view from the internet

Our guide did the tour in Spanish and English.  

The palace is no longer where the president lives.  It is a working palace so when you schedule a tour, you never know if you will be able to finish it or not because of meetings.  We didn't get to visit one wing because of this very thing.

We visited the chapel.  It has always been a chapel. but they did lower the ceiling once

Our guide explaining things

Carman is the saint that is believed to have helped liberate Chile

The Presidential Flag and Seal of Chile

Elder Thompson y Hermana Hughes listening intently

Like this foto of Jesus Christ better than on the cross

Then we went into the Cannon Yard

This cannon is called Relampago

Built in 1772

Two funny looking tourists

This is the President's offices, the three windows where he greets visits in the blue room

We didn't get to see the blue room because of meetings going on

The Nixon administration spent 3 years trying to get a military coup in Chile to get rid of President Allende who was regarded as a threat to democracy because he was a Marxist.  The Chilean Air Force bombed the palace during the military coup of 1973 at the request of the Army.  President Allende committed suicide in the palace during the bombing using an automatic rifle that was gifted to him by Fidel Castro.

Ironically the democratically elected Allende was succeeded by the brutal dictator General Augusto Pinochat who ruled Chile with an iron fist for the next 17 years.

This wall in the palace represents the old with Allende's medalian and the new with the different colored bricks.  

The reconstruction of the palace was completed in 1981.

The back of an armored car outside the palace

The armored car

The Chilean Flag

The doorways in the office buildings surrounding the palace all have the Chilean Seal above them

The Chilean President is only allowed to serve for 4 consecutive years.  They had a woman president for 4 years, then a man, then the same woman again and now the man is the president for the second time.  The people on our tour commented that they hoped the woman would again become the president when it is time for re-election.

We finished our tour by getting our passports returned and we headed back to the office.  We really enjoyed getting to know more about this country.  One day we hope to return to the palace to watch the changing of the guard.

It was our turn to pick our restaurant Friday evening.  We were thrilled that the Brotherson's would be able to join us.  I picked a restaurant that looked interesting.  Couldn't remember the name but knew what street to go down to find it.  (hope the food is good)

Ocean Pacific's Esmeralda

You've got to admit it looks interesting

We parked in back and this was the wall along the driveway

On top of the wall were different figures

This one was upside down

Each one was completely different then the next one, sailors with oars and steering wheels

We thought it was a little strange to have a black pirate

but we found out that their other restaurant downtown had burned down 3 months ago and this pirate was in front of it.

pathway to the front door had an eagle with his wings spread out and lots of flags

They even had real fish swimming in the stream beside the walkway

The outside was an adventure, what will the inside bring?

It was a two story naval museum!  There were glass cases uniforms, photos, parts of ships, look at the ceiling, it was a map of the oceans

Even the centerpieces were naval

models of ships

Ship figureheads

We were thrilled to be able to enjoy this naval museum and were delighted that the food was very good also.  It was a bit spendy, but you have to remember that we not only got food, salmon and shrimp and tuna, but enjoyed visiting the museum as well.  

And we enjoyed the company!

We decided to spend a quiet Saturday with only one service call, baked cookies and a black berry pie, and got some chicken-ala-king made for Sunday dinner.

And another week has come and gone. As always, you are in our thoughts and prayers.  We send our love.  Have a great week.  It will be fun to see what our next adventure will be. Chao!