We took a day trip to the capital yesterday with a few folks from school. It was mostly recon for us, as we'd never been to the colonial zone and want to take a longer trip later when we can actually take it in. Trying to soak up some history in a day's time is tiring and ineffective - and we were actually there to take the kids to see The Nutcracker before heading back to Santiago. There's just something about 500 year old buildings that is cool, though, so I'll definitely be going back.
Anyway, we saw several things we want go back and cover thoroughly....but the thing that inexplicably intrigued me was the game these guys pictured below were playing. It's pretty much checkers, but with a few moves I couldn't decipher - and with 30(!) checkers per side. It appeared to require a good bit of strategy, but moved at a very rapid pace. And, the folks standing around seemed to be discreetly gambling on it. I thought it was cool.
There were a number of small cigar operations sprinkled throughout the Colonial Zone. Didn't make it into any, but it's on my list for next time.

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