I arrived at the bus terminal in Santiago two weeks ago so I am a little behind with the blogs but will catch up over the next few days. Patty who i met at Queulat in Patagonia met at the station and took me to Camilo’s apartment, who I also met in Patagonia, where I’d be staying during my time in Santiago. I was tired and a little dazed by the big, busy city but I for into the feel of it much quicker than I had before.
We spent the afternoon and evening catching up and the next morning i took some time to relax and but a sim for my phone as I had no way of contacting anyone, which is why I’m faster at messaging now…because obviously that was a big problem for everyone!
I took the photos below are the view from Camilo’s apartment. I’ve been told that in summer you can’t see the mountains through the pollution but I had fairly good views of snow capped peaks.
After buying the SIM card I realised my mistake of not getting the store to ser it up for me. I followed the instructions as best I could but it didn’t work. The Phone number I could call was a menu all in Spanish and I thought I’d have to stay in all afternoon to wait for someone to find me before I realised I could hunt down wifi.
I went to the metro, got off at a random stop in the centre of town and went to look for a WiFi location. After a few minutes I found a mall, made contact, Googled how to get my phone working and met with Patty feeling pretty happy with myself.
I had a tour of centre of the city and we stopped to eat these waffles in the park.
We visited an art museum and annoyingly I didn’t bring my camera so the pictures are lacking for this day.
Patty had to attend a lecture so I wondered off alone in search of a cafe. I found one and had a Nescafé coffee where I helped myself to hit water and started researching what I wanted to do for the next few days. Camilo joined me. Now whereas Patty’s English is good Camilo’s is not so good, I’d argue it’s still better than my Spanish, so we spent a lot of time ponging and using Google Translator.
After the lecture we all went out for dinner and I was delighted to go to a Raman restaurant where I had some of the best Raman I’ve ever had!
The next day I was left to my own devices again. I wanted to book a tour to Sewell, which is a mine with an abandoned town, so for once I decided to book a tour and headed to the offices. Upon arrival I was told that they only operated out of the office part time and I should call them. I hate calling and to my shame I decanted to a nearby Starbucks to use the WIFI. I sent an email and then decided to continue with my day.
I went to the presidential palace and below ground found an exhibition centre. I have no idea what was going on but I managed to get these snaps.
At this point after no reply from the agency I decided to message them. I got an instant reply and over the course of a WhatsApp conversation I booked a tour. I started to realise the power of contacting companies via WhatsApp.
I decided to have lunch at a seafood market that is located in the centre of the city. Unlike Argentina, Chile is known for its seafood and I was despertare to try some. The market was full of fish stores and restaurants with people calling me over for he best deal although all the prices and menus seemed the same. I decided to go for the forth one for no particular reason and had prawns to start and salmon.
This is the salmón!
I also managed to find my favourite sweets in Chile which I devoured later when I had post drunken munchies.
At 3pm I joined the free walking tour. It had been good in Buenos Aires and I think they are a good way to find out more and help you get your bareings in a city. This time the square was full of people waiting but as the groups split up into Spanish, Portuguese and English I was left in a group of six people. It was actually really nice and much easier to chat than in a huge group. The tour lasted for around 4 hours and we ended up in the student district where I went for a few drinks with people from the tour before heading back for an esrlyish night.
The next day was even clearer so I took some more photos from the apartment.
In the afternoon i decided to visit Parque San Cristobal, a rare area of tranquillity in the middle of the metropolis. Again without really knowing anything I hiked to the too where I could see there was a cable car. At the very top is a church and monument of the virgin and I took some pictures to show you along the way.
After the short hike I decided to treat myself to a cable car back down. I was joined by a family who I struggled to speak any Spanish to, but I at least tried and their son who played a video game the entire time-oh misspent youth.
At the bottom i decided to put on more weight and brought another giant ice cream.
And I spotted this grafiti on an advert on the way to the metro station. It pleases me that across the world we can all deface things in a childish manor.
After I met Patty and went to her parents house for her brothers birthday party. They were all really friendly and welcomed me into the party. I was able to sample a lot of Chillen wine. Maybe too much wine and discovered that the clocks agent back an hour. At 2 am we decided to leave and I went back ready to get up early for my tour the following day, which I will detail in another post.
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