Hola!

No hablo Espanol! This is the only Spanish I have learnt (apart from hello, goodbye, thank you, numbers, etc). It means "I don´t speak Spanish" (I think)! It is really difficult here as everybody speaks Spanish and practically nobody speaks English. I knew this before I came but I didn´t think it would be as bad as it is, and kind of thought I could bumble along like I did everywhere else. I suppose I am bumbling along really, I have only been here four days and I´ve been to places before where English speakers are very much the exception to the rule, like Russia and China. At least they use the same alphabet here. And they speak Spanish in most of South America (or Portuguese, but that is very similar I am told). It´s a definite disadvantage. Oh well, it makes life more exciting (apart from when everybody else in the group speaks Spanish and you don´t understand them). If I´d come straight from home I would have learnt before I came, but never mind. My enthusiasm for learning new languages is waning as well, I think maybe I´m getting a little tired of charging around new places constantly. It is already getting easier though, and like I say I´ve only been here a few days, most of which I spent wandering around like a zombie feeling as though it was the middle of the night. I feel a bit less lost now due to my purchase of Lonely Planet for Chile. I spent literally an entire day tracking this down on my final day in Santiago. I felt like an addict or something, separated from my drug of choice and going to any lengths to obtain it. I almost bought South America on a Shoestring, but it was 50 pounds! I don´t think that would fit into my shoestring budget. I almost caved in, but then all the shops shut at 3pm (on a Saturday, what?!) so after wandering around the entire city in a circle and going in every single bookshop, I finally tracked down a second hand copy of the Chile book for 5 pounds. I also purchased a children´s English-Spanish dictionary, which I mainly bought for the pictures, and is my main source of Spanish related information when I get stuck (which happens frequently). Armed with this publicated ammo, I am ready to conquer South America!

So, I flew in on Thursday, and arrived the next day, which was Thursday again because I crossed the date line. I time-travelled, ooh-er. I realised I was going to have a problem when I was welcomed onto the plane in Spanish, and asked in Spanish what I wanted to eat. I wrote off sleeping on the plane at all after the last trip and watched several movies and tv programmes, they even had an interactive "learn Spanish" programme, which kept me occupied (and my neighbour annoyed) for the first couple of hours, which is where I learnt my numbers and things, but it didn´t really teach me anything particularly useful. When the plane landed, it was quite exciting, as you could see the Andes stretching away for miles. It is very beautiful. I´m always amazed how countries can look so different. I kind of asumed all mountains and all lakes would look vaguely the same, but the difference in landscape is huge, even between countries which are tiny and neighbour ones which are different again. It kind of makes me want to go to every single country in the world. :) I wasn´t sure what to expect from Chile, and out of habit ran away from the taxi men loitering outside the airport, but when I finally told one I was looking for the bus he told me where to go and how much to pay, which surprised me. I was expecting to get ripped off and hoodwinked, not helped.

Chile is turning out to be very civilised, which is good I guess, but I still really miss the craziness of Asia. I am told it gets more crazy. And I do like being able to take a bus journey which doesn´t involve peeing at the side of the road, and buy food and know what I´m eating. I didn´t do much in Santiago, I spent most of the time recovering from jet lag and looking for Lonely Planet books. It also took me the first 24 hours before I could obtain money and therefore food. I cleverly arrived on a bank holiday and spent the first day thinking Santiago was some kind of ghost city as nobody was around at all. It´s a very nice city. They also had a Starbucks, which made me happy. I even ordered it in Spanish - "Chai Latte con soy leche" :D See, I´m experiencing real Chile. My hostel was great, everyone is very friendly and helpful here, and you get free breakfasts in Chile. I like free things. As I´m doing my Inca trek in two weeks, I needed to get to Peru asap, so as soon as I felt a bit better I hopped on a bus to La Serena. I am impressed by the buses here, they´re very clean and make toilet stops in nice places. After SEAsia, I continue to be overly impressed by buses. I´m taking another bus tomorrow, for 22 hours (so it´s a good job I like them, I may have a different idea by the end of it!) and I get snacks and breakfast included in my ticket, how good is that?! (Freebies) Anyway, I walked through the whole of La Serena on my way from the bus station, and practially saw the whole of it, it is very small. I also arrived on a Sunday which, like the Bank Holiday, Chileans spend in church and at home, as nothing was open and I saw about five people. As I was feeling better by this time, I celebrated by helping to drink a bottle of whiskey. Why do I never learn? I don´t know how it happened, one minute I was drinking camomile tea to keep warm and help me sleep, and then I decided whiskey would work better. It did. My hostel is again very good, and there was a nice crowd of English, Irish and Americans last night (and a bottle of whiskey).

Today I walked to the beach and saw the Pacific, I even have some shells as souvenirs. I should take this opportunity to announce that nobody is getting gifts, I´m afraid. I have no money and no space in my rucksack. I will buy something nice at Christmas (if I have a job), or you could just enjoy the gift of my prose :) I wandered round the town, I even went to a church and have decided I quite like them. Maybe I´m having some kind of religious conversion. They´re nice to sit in because they´re quiet and peaceful. Well, churches here. Churches (or rather temples) in Asia are largely noisy.

So far I have observed that Chileans like hotdogs, smooching in parks, smooching in shopping centres, smooching in the street, innappropriately tight clothing, singing, heavy metal, singing along to heavy metal, and pisco sour, which I have yet to try, would you believe.

Tomorrow I´m going on my 22 hour bus journey to Arica. I really like bus journeys now. At home if I had to go on a two hour bus journey I´d grumble and get bored, but I love them whilst travelling. It´s a good way to see the country, the scenery is normally amazing. It´s also good thinking time; I´ve had many revelations on long journeys. It´s funny because one of the most important parts of "travelling" for me now is the actual travelling, and before I set off I´d just think of it as a way of getting from A to B. Very interesting. Well, to me, I accept it probably isnt to other people.

Anyway, adios!

P.S. Okay, there are no English spellchecks here, if I use it it tells me every single word is spelt wrong (apart from the rare Spanish words I´ve spelt correctly), so for the rest of my trip I´ll have to rely on my brain. :S Oh dear. I know most people won´t care, but poor spelling upsets and offends me, so I apologise to anyone of a similar character.