What's with all the blogs Charlie Brown…..?

So where did I get to? Oh yes something about enjoying Santiago then calling all South American people average, oh yes ;)

So today I get up bright & early, eay myself another huge breakfast & set off for the Cuban Embassy (again). It's another ridiculously hot day & the walk there is long again, I roll up & no one speaks any English, which matched with my poor Spanish meant we got along famously (& also meant they wouldn't let me in until the Gardener tried to explain what I wanted to them). I get in, sit down, give my passport (wow this is easy), & then they want the cash…wahoo all cool so far, in dollars. Sorry? We're in Chile & you want US Dollars? 30 of them? Oh coooool, so where's the nearest Cambio? Oh right, all the way back up where I came from, you mean that 20minute walk I just took to get here, I have to go back up it again (for the 4th time)?

So off I trot & after talking to some lovely locals in my Spanglish & the Cambo guy saying I speak Spanish well (hahahahahahah), I finally have my 30 dollars in hand & with excitement I go back down that long road again, happy this Visa Marathon is finally coming to an end.

I hand over the 30 dollars, hmmm there seems to be a problem with one 10 dollar bill, oh a bit of writing? I never noticed so I just shrug my shoulders & look slightly defeated & desperate saying I don't understand. Luckily for me the poor ladies felt sorry for me, hand me the 10 back & put my visa through, another bonus is I get another 5 dollars back as they only charged me 15 :)

As I leave I realise I've obviously made some sort of impact (or they felt sorry for me) & one lady blows me little kisses as I leave (unless she is a lesbian..could be either to be fair).

I make it back just in time to then get on the free tour around Santiago & to show us what the 'real' Chileans do ;)

So we start with 'coffee with legs', basically the short story is a guy decided to start a coffee shop, years ago, with girls wearing tight mini skirts, it worked for all of a year then other places also caught on & started doing the same. He decided he must up his game & basically somewhere along the line it ended up being a sort of darkish club place, girls in erm bikini things (see my pic) serving the men coffee (while also on a light up dance floor & tunes pelting out), this was quite interesting to witness& I'm still unsure what I think about it. The girl was lovely but It's weird seeing so many men in there at 2.30pm on a Wednesday, drinking COFFEE yet glaring at girls & giving them big tips for them being nice to them :S

Part of me thinks 'poor girls', the other part think well what stupid men for paying them. I mean some men genuinely did think some of these girls 'liked' them, you could see it in their faces, or maybe they were just fantasising? Who knows. Reminds me very much of a strip club but with coffee, so not as seedy, even though it was, but wasn't. See how confused I am?! Obviously the mens wife or girlfriend knew nothing about them going there, maybe that's what makes them seedy, yet obviously attractive to the men?

Next we went through some markets & chatted to some locals briefly, this was really nice & even though some areas were dodgy everyone seemed so lovely :)

Onwards to our last stop..oh hold on, I forgot to tell you about the crazy bald-ish woman on the bus with weird white eyes...actually I'll let you imagine the rest of that. So yes, on to our last stop for an Earthquake!!! woooOOoOoooOoo scary. This turns out to be wine in a pint glass with a large shot of Fernet (a liquer, kinda menthol smelling) & a scoop of ice cream in the top! You mix it all up until its kinda creamy white then drink…well I'm glad I shared mine because they are LETHAL! Everyone was all glass eyed after their whole ones & we even had people complaining they wanted more (to be fair I'd have been up for some more if I wasn't on a night bus tonight).

So another good day today & tonight I'm off to Pucon, which I am SO excited about. I hope it lives up to my expectations :) xxx

P.s This has not been proof read so I apologise if it's crap & makes your eyes bleed due to grammatical errors. Thanks