Quinta Normal and the Train Museum (Museo Ferroviario)

On Sunday we went to a park called Quinta Normal in another part of the city.  It is similar to Golden Gate Park (San Francisco) or Parque Retiro (Madrid) with grassy areas, wide promenades, a small manmade lake with paddle boats, and several museums within its gates.  It also had this guy with a real Llama!  (Anything to make money, right?)  We tried putting the boys on it for a picture, but they weren't into it. 

We came to the park mainly for an open-air train museum that Matt and Jessica told us about.  It has sixteen retired steam engines, among other trains, some of which you could climb on or inside of. 

This train had a pit you could go into to see the underside of the steam engine.  Not something you get to do every day!

Pulling the handle that rings the train's bell...

 I thought it was pretty cool that they have the same kind of old passenger cars as the ones in the Polar Express movie.  Of course Caleb loved that!

Inside the old passenger cars

Landon pressing his nose against the window and Caleb the thinker...

Hands-on learning

Landon looks very focused on trying to turn the wheel in this picture, but he was actually smiling and very excited to play with it, though the picture snapped and just the wrong time to capture that.

Grabbed a choripan after the museum
(instead of a hot dog it is a chorizo sausage - yummy!)

On our way home we were walking past the fire station in our neighborhood and were so excited and lucky to see that they had the engine and the hoses out for cleaning!  This was a treat, and rather rare, as people don't just go visit a fire station and get to sit inside of a fire truck like we sometimes do at home.  I don't think the idea would even occur to a Chilean to do such a thing.  Interesting fact: Being a firefighter in Chile - small city or large metropolis like Santiago - is 100% volunteer work.  That's right, they don't get paid a dime, yet they do it as full time jobs.  Pretty amazing. 

This engine is a brand new one that they just recently got - from the United States.  Not sure why they put British and Commonwealth Fire and Rescue Co....

Our friends, Matt, Jessica, and Evan.