Santiago

So far, Santiago was the most westernized city we’ve come across.  I’m not saying whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, but I do have to say that getting around was a heck of a lot more convenient.

We arrived in Santiago at about 5:30 in the morning, and after paying $140 in visa fees (ouch!  Vince got away with only $61…) we managed to find a public bus and make our way into the city to what we thought was the stop closest to our hostel, Che Lagarto.  After referring to my travel guide for a map and still having no clue which direction to walk, a Chilean girl came and helped us as we must’ve looked like the most confused people she had ever seen.  We found our hostel about a block away, of course, and found it to be closed!  What to do!  Luckily, another friendly Chilean walked by and informed us in his broken English that it shut down from the recent earthquake… GREAT!  So we had no money (roughly 60 cents US in Chilean Pesos) and no idea where to go or even start looking.  Luckily, once again, there was a bus station right across the street, so we hopped in there and tried to call from a payphone but they were all broken… Vince spotted an ATM in the building we I got out some cash and we went out front to pay a cab to take us to the hostel’s new mystery location.  Whenever there’s a problem and you’re running on an hour of sleep n the last 35 and extremely frustrated, throw money at the problem, or else someone could get hurt.

We finally arrived and were able to check in early to our bunks.  At this point I was still having problems with my vision and eyes from 2 months ago, so thinking that we were in a more developed city that we would be in for a while, I asked the receptionist how I could go about seeing an eye doctor.  She offered to take me herself as her shift was almost over, so the three of us headed downtown, a five minute walk, to the clinic, just to find it closed (as it was Sunday).  We headed back to the hostel for a long siesta figuring that I’ll just go on Monday (even though I wouldn’t get the help of a translator).  After some much needed rest, Vince and I headed out to explore Santiago.  After getting some mediocre Chinese food (everything in this country is quite expensive and this was cheap.. you get what you pay for…) we first went to the main Plaza and investigated the church and other famous buildings, and also found a street performer harassing tour groups as they went through, which was pretty funny.  Then we tried to check out the national theater, but they were doing a lot of construction on it and we couldn’t get inside to take a peek.  So, we headed to the grocery store to get some food to cook a delicious, dinner which consisted of lots of veggies and some fresh baked rolls with longonista links in them.  Mmmm!  We hung out at the hostel that night as we were still tired from flying the night before and watched the Naked Gun, played some ping pong, and also some foozeball.

The next day we got up early to head to the clinic for a doctor’s appointment.  Honestly, I don’t know how I manage to get things done…me knowing very simple Spanish, Chileans speaking their own dialect with a crazy accent and having completely different words than the Spanish I know, and them also knowing about 3 words in English.  But by some magic, I managed to score an appt. at 11:15 am.  Well, it was about 8 am at that point, so we decided to head across the river north of town to check out the local fish market and the La Vega produce market to kill some time.  The fish market didn’t have much there, but the produce market was huge!  Imagine a building twice the size of Costco with endless rows of fruits, vegetables, nuts, olives, dog food (yes), etc. that you could get lost in wandering.  We strolled along there for a while learning different words in Spanish and then we decided to head into the next Zona over called Bellavista (which is supposed to be more of a college town with lots of bars and restaurants).  We tried to go and see one of Pablo Neruda’s three houses, but it was closed.  Pablo Neruda is Chile’s most famous poets and his homes are known for being storing places of collectables from all over the world.  So we headed back to the doctor.  I checked in somehow and we finally got called to the back by my name… Nicole Meder (just have to go with it), and had some sort of vision test by the nurse.  A while later I was able to see the doctor (ladies if you’re single, go see Jose and get an eye test…) and managed to explain to him what’s been going on with the help of a Spanish-English dictionary.  The result… I needed glasses…  Great!  : /  We spent the next 45 minutes checking different pairs along the streets downtown, and managed to settle on a pair for $70 from the ones I actually wanted which cost about $300… probably a better move.  After having to return late 2 days later to pick them up, we headed for some food.  We strolled by the Plaza and found an alleyway FULL of small stands of completes and italianos (hot dogs loaded).  I swear, these people must have cholesterol levels through the roof!  Between completos and fried chicken… DANG!  Anyway, we scarfed down one each and headed back to the hostel as we booked a wine tour at 2 pm.  We headed to the vineyard Concha y Toro and had a tour of the grounds, the cellar, and tasted some white and red wine.  Unfortunately the vineyard didn’t actually make the wine so we missed that step in the tour, but we’ve seen it before so that was alright.

After the tour we headed back to Santiago and headed back to Bellavista to meet up with one of Vince’s old roommates from Seattle who was doing a study abroad program in Santiago.  2 pitchers of Sangria and some Pisco Sours later we ended up back in her place for some late night dinner… pasta with tuna and warm cream.  It wasn’t bad, but then again that could’ve been the alcohol talking!  It was really nice of her to cook for us and bring us back to her place to check it out though, and especially to have a conversation in English with someone you know!  We said our farewells and headed back to the hostel late in the night as the next day we were headed to Valapariso.

We spent the next day and a half in Valapariso and then came back to Santiago for the afternoon and evening.  When we got back we picked up my glasses, Vince had to do some paperwork for getting one of his papers published in a journal and then we got some grub and headed to a bar called Pojero wich was like a Chilean cowboy bar.  It was Wednesday and it was full to the rafter at 8 pm with people drinking their famous drink called the Teremoto (I think it means earthquake).  It was basically fruit wine from a jug that looked like it was meant for moonshine, some mysterious ingredient, and pineapple sorbet.  Vince and I shared one and let’s just say there were strong!  After our drink we grabbed some sandwiches, repacked our bags and headed to the bus station from the subway for our 11 hour bus ride down to Pucon.

There were still a few things I would have liked to see in Santiago, but circumstances arise and you can only do what you can do.  Nothing I couldn’t live without seeing, but it just goes to show, traveling is an adventure!