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11th May 2013
We woke up around 8am packed our bags and made our way to breakfast. Again we were greeted by the German guy who made us a crepe each to accompany our breakfast. Knowing we had a long journey ahead of us but unsure if we would be fed we stole some apples and croissants from the breakfast buffet. Due to our drinking the previous night we had a 20 minute walk in the sun with back packs to tackle. To be fair it wasn't to bad which made the beers from the previous night worth it. We boarded our small bus which was was from a Chilian company Tur-Bus, we didn't want to get caught out by the strikes again. We were provided with a small lunch of biscuits and ham and cheese sandwiches. Not too bad and it meant we could save our food for later! We had to complete some forms and tried our best to understand the questions stating no for most. Eventually after a beautiful ride through the Andes we arrived to the Argentina/Chile border. It took forever! First if all our bus was parked for ages not moving. Then eventually we were all brought inside to passport control which to be fair wasn't too bad and ran more smoothly then previous ones. Thinking that was it we boarded the coach which then moved a mere 100 metres and we were told to leave the bus with all bags and make our way to customs. All our bags were taken out of the luggage area in the coach and a sniffer dog was given free reign to investigate. To our horror he walked straight over to Josh's bag and put his paw down and slightly yelped. The guard came straight over and shouted in Spanish I can only presume who's bag is this. Josh awkwardly put his hand up and was then led away with his bag leaving me behind with the hand luggage. I couldn't quite see what was going on but could make out Josh's awkward laugh. The sniffer dog then jumped on to the long tables placed in front of us and started checking out everyone's hand luggage. He finally came to our rucksack and again the paw was out. In disbelief I looked at the man and gestured that it was in fact my bag. I literally had no idea what on earth this dog was sniffing! The man grabbed my bag and started searching through even taking out a cork for the dog to sniff, he must of been looking for drugs as every little compartment was search and any little bags were shoved in the dogs nose to double check. It wasn't until he got to the bottom of my bag the drama was solved.. an apple. Somehow the dog had sniffed out an apple, I didn't even know apples gave out scent! I was then led away with the rucksack to where Josh was standing. He'd had the same issue, we were fruit smugglers! What made it worse the forms we had completed earlier and ticked no to everything, well we had declared that we carried no fruit. Josh had got a good telling off from the coach driver, however the guys in customs were now more relaxed now they'd figured out we weren't trying to smuggle cocain across the border . Luckily we didn't get a fine, just our apples confiscated and we needed to redo our declaration form so they had record that we'd tried to bring apples into Chile.
After all that drama and some dirty looks from our fellow coach companions as we had delayed the bus we were glad to finally get to Chile! There were further delays driving through the Andes, there was a sheer drop so only one car could cross at once. I was petrified! I hate heights and now every time I glanced out the window all I could see was a massive drop! It was a pretty cool journey in all, driving through the magnificent mountains, it just took ages and felt like we moved very slow.
Finally we arrived at the Santiago bus terminal, feel a bit drowsy from our journey and the fact we were in a new country. We walked to find a taxi. A man in a leather coat approached us shouting taxi so we immediately followed glad that we were going to be at our hostel sooner then later. We put all our luggage into the boot before getting in, then to our horror the guy that we thought was the taxi rank co ordinator jumped in too. Josh and I immediately knew something was up, when Josh asked what was going on he replied with 'its cool, it's cool'. It really wasn't, trusting our instincts Josh and I knew we shouldn't of got in the car. I was terrified, Josh got me to transfer my money bag to him as we knew the guy had seen me get a large amount of money our earlier. The guy was on his phone talking to someone in Spanish, I think we were both were scared that he was going to take us somewhere and steal everything. What didn't help is that that our hostel road wasn't located on our I phone map so we weren't sure if we were even heading in the right direction. Finally we were driven to our hostel, Josh ensured that we got all our bags out just in case they sped off with our luggage. The guy then told us it was 37,000 Chilean pesos and started to try and grab notes from my little bag. Not knowing the currency I quickly got on to my converter and typed in the amount, it came up as £41.00 so I immediately knew he was trying to rip of us naive English travellers off. I shouted to Josh but as soon as he seen I'd realised they drove off, doors still open. I was so angry! Angry that this was our first impression of Chile, and also angry that Josh and I who are so careful and streetwise had let ourselves be put in a threatening situation which could of ended up way worse. £40 is a small price to pay to have a lessoned learnt. Still it did dishearten us.
We walked in to 'Footsteps Hostel' to be greeted by a run down hostel and a guy who didn't speak much English. Both shattered and hungry got some ham, cheese and bread we'd purchased in Mendoza and had a basic dinner. When we walked into the social room we were greeted by Jacob from Sweden who had been at our previous hostel. It was a nice surprise to see someone familiar. After a long day we decided the only solution was to drink! So Josh and Jacob walked to the shop returning with two bottles of red wine and two crates of beer, perfect! We played pool on the poor excuse for a pool table and got through our alcohol. Around 11pm Serena and Robbie from our last hostel turned up, they'd had a exhausting day walking up at St.Cristobal mountain. Serena was tired so went to bed after a small chat but Robbie stayed up and drank red wine with us until it was all gone and we all retired to our dorms.
12th May 2013
The next morning I woke up feeling horrendous, I had a cold cough and sore head. I couldn't figure out if my sore head was from the wine the night before or not. I skipped breakfast feeling far to sick for it and had an extra hour in bed. Josh brought be up a coffee and went to tackle the apparently non existent breakfast. The hostel really was't up to the standards of all the other hostels we had been luckily enough to stay in, none of the staff cared and it appeared that all the guest except us worked there. That was later confirmed when I spotted a work for your bed sign. When I could finally got up we made our way out of the hostel to check out the town. First we walked to the big park which was beautifully co ordinated with semetrical benches and lots of greenery. A massive issue in South America seems to be stray dogs. However rather then ignore the issue Santiago acknowledge and maybe encourage it. In the middle of the park were dog houses. One dog house contains lots of puppies, I instantly fell in love!
We then walked down towards the centre, on route we spotted a large arch way with what looked like a market inside. We decided to investigate further and came across a massive fish market. Inside further were lots of different fish restaurants. I love seafood, so Josh and I decided to have diner. We sat down in a busy little restaurant which appeared to be filled with locals which is always a good sign! A chubby little man greeted us, he was so cute and friendly and on learning we only spoke English went and got the manager. The manager was lovely and obviously wanted to try out his English on us. He spoke to us for ages and gave us recommendations on what to order and told us that after our meal we should have a walk round.
Our meal was amazing! I had sea food soup, it was incredible. Full of every kind of shell fish or white fish available, and Josh had a traditional Chile fish with rice. It all came with a 'salad' which actually included all different vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower too. We thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the whole atmosphere of the market too. The manager had informed us that the building was one of the oldest on Chile because how well it had been built. It had survived numerous earthquakes because of its strength. After we'd finished our meal we had a wonder around before making our way towards the city square. The city square is surrounded by interesting buildings, old and new. In different parts of the square there were large groups if people surrounding someone doing some kind of entertainment. Not really understanding much we moved through the different groups before coming to a comedian who had the crowd in stitches. Josh lifted the camera to take a photo of the crowd and comedian but to his horror the comedian spotted him. On learning we were English and spoke no Spanish we became the butt of his jokes with all the Chilian crowd laughing and turning to look at us. Mortified but also laughing as Josh in particular had be singled out we moved on. We came to a small band singing Chilian music whilst the crowd danced. I grabbed Josh and got him to dance with me, it just seemed normal to do something like that in Chile. Apart from our first experience in the country everyone else we had met had been so helpful and lovely.
We eventually made our way back to our hostel, on route picking up some treats for desert which we scoffed until we were both tired and retired to our lovely bunk beds.
13th May 2013
I woke up feeling really unwell again but made it down to breakfast. Literally it was just a loaf of bread toaster and butter. Nonetheless I filled myself up on as much as I could manage. The sky was still cloudy however we decided that we were going to go up the famous St.Cristobal mountain. On route we walked through Patio Bellavista which is a famous beautiful patio of different restaurants and shops. We also walked through the different colourful streets which had graffiti. It seemed to be a university town, everywhere we looked there was another campus and it was full of young people strolling around with folders. The university looked insane, I imagine it would be a strong contender as one the best in Chile due to its size and location in the capital city. Around 1pm when the funicular opened which would take us to the top of the mountain we made our way to St.Cristobal mountain. The funiculars seemed a but unsteady and old fashioned to me, but I'm a major wimp and get scared of anything so I don't think my opinion counts for too much! When up the top we had some amazing views of Santiago. You could see the city below and also the city smog from all the pollution. It's always cool looking over a city, Josh and I love a good view point! After taking in the view and a few snaps we made our way up to the 'Virgin Mary Statue'. Kind of like Christ the Redeemer it looks over the city of Santiago and you're suppose to be able to see it from all angles of the city. However it's very different to Christ the redeemer once your up there, rather then a tourist attraction it's more of a place of worship. People peacefully sat looking down looking upon the city. It had a really lovely vibe, Josh and I lit candles for our loved ones which just felt so peaceful with the Virgin Mary looking down and the fact we were at the top of a mountain. Eventually we made our way down on the funicular. My head was pounding, and every now and then I would feel excruciating pain. We decided it might be time to eat so stopped off for a Chilli burger in Chile on route back to the hostel! Whilst we were sitting we watched two dancers who would do a short performance every time that it hit a red light then they'd go collect money from the cars in the traffic. As we walked back my head got worse and worse and I was literally in bend over pain. I got back to the hostel and literally passed out on the sofa. It didn't seem possible that we would be able to leave that night as I felt so awful with a cold, sore throat and banging head. So Josh and I decided it was probably about the best time for us to book a hotel. Luckily there was a cute little hotel opposite which wasn't too expensive. It felt so good to get into a nice comfortable bed after sleeping in bunk beds for so long. Especially as I wasn't feeling well at all. Josh looked after me even going out to get a home comfort, KFC! We found an English Channel which was a bit like E4 at home and showed program's such as Friends and The Big Bang Theory. Before I knew it I passed out and into a deep needed sleep.
14th May 2013
I woke up feeling better then the night before but still not great. Josh and I had looked into it and the symptoms, especially my banging head ache sounded like altitude sickness. I'm not surprised really with our trips in and out of the Andes, just annoying when I just wanted to be feeling ok and visit the different places. We had a lovely breakfast consisting of fresh fruit, cereal and cheese and salami toasties. On checking out we asked the receptionist about these coffee shops that we had read up on that are called 'coffee with legs', also about bus times to Valparaiso. He was so helpful, it was quite refreshing compared to the douche bags who worked at our old hostel. We decided to walk central and find one of these seedy coffee shops. Eventually after a lot of looking down random streets we came across one. It looked like a strip joint from the outside. 'Coffee with Legs' are little cafes where the women wear next to nothing, they're open in the day and a normal thing in Santiago. We walked in and it couldn't of been more seedier. The girls who I feel bad saying were unattractive with their bellies hanging over their thongs. They leant up against the men drinking their coffee. Josh and I nervously ordered two Lattes. To be fair they seemed to understand we were there for tourist reasons and left us alone devoting all their attention to leaning seductively against the obvious locals. Josh and I sat in disbelief that it was morning and a cafe like this was open! We finished our lattes and paid the small price, equivalent of £1.30 and made our way out into the sunshine.
After our seedy experience we decided to walk down and visit the presidential palace. It was huge and white and for some reason reminded me of the White House in Washington DC. There was the tallest and biggest Chilian flag I had ever seen in front. The only downfall I'd say is the rubbish metal gates around it, like the ones used in night clubs to queue against. You'd expect something a lot more grand for such a statement building. We walked down all the famous streets in Santiago, ranging from popular second hand shopping street Bandera Street to the financial streets.
On route home we stopped off in the main square, Plaza de Armas. We walked around inside the large church taking in the fancy religious art work. We also passed some famous gardens, Barrio Lastarria which were free to visit. A peaceful place to chill in Santiago and I imagine a place to escape the city for the locals. It was beautiful and after the city smog I welcomed the smell of trees and the different plants. There was also great views over the city, obviously not as high as St.Cristobal, however you could still see a the city sky line.
When we got back to the hotel we were greeted by our friendly hotel receptionist who had helpfully written differed bus times for our next destinations. We re-charged our phone battery's and booked a taxi for our next destination Valparaiso .
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