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Published: March 3rd 2008
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Ok, so I skipped a week or so. I'm sorry, OK? Geez.
Not much else happened in Bariloche. I met some other Americans, Robert and Michael, and spent most of my time either hanging out with them or a new English girl, Joanna. She was about 6'2". A giant amongst the Argentinians. Most of the men are 5'6" and they absolutely loved her for this. Many times when we would go out we'd get a guy standing on a chair to try and impress her. This would only make her mad and self conscious about her height. She was a monster though. The Dutch girls left me and I think that I am wearing thin on my house mates. Maybe it was when someone borrowed my keys from me and I had to wake Nick up at 3am to unlock the door. Yeah, probably that.
I spent the days of my last week in Bariloche either in my afternoon classes or sleeping. The highlight, other than those two activities, was the glider flight. The school activity promised a plane ride with acrobatic qualities. "Sign me up," I said. Well, it turned out to be a glider flight minus the
acrobatics. Oh well. Still fun none the less. My old man actually has his license so this wasnt anything new for me except for the part of being in Argentina, in the mountains with an excellent view. Pictures are included. The pilot made some pretty sharp turns but no flips or barrel rolls, sigh. There were two planes and 14 people so it took all afternoon to take us all up. We finished off the day in a cool ass VW bus giving us a ride home. I really want one now. I will trade a 2001 Ford Ranger straight up for one if anyone has one.
I bought my tickets to Santiago and I wasnt messing around this time. Instead of the lame Semi-Cama seat I upgraded to Cama. Ohhhhhhh. Cost me 40 more pesos, about 10 bucks and ohh was it worth it. This was a 30 hour bus ride and I wanted to be comfy. I went out one last night with the Bariloche crew and head out, bright and early, at 1pm on Saturday. The bus was great. Imagine a first-class plane seat minus the food and top shelf liquor. We made a few stops
along the way but they werent for food or bathroom breaks, just more passengers. By the time I reached Mendoza at 8 the next day all I had to eat was 2 Alfajores, 8 Oreos, and a bottle of water. I bought some nasty ham and cheese sandwiches and completely devoured them along with a bag of cheese puffs. I had 3 hours in Mendoza before the new bus departed so I sat there and was stared at by a creepy old guy with no teeth. Everytime he tried to talk to me saliva would spit out of the side of his mouth. The bus ticket salesman would chase him off but he would only return 5 minutes later. I dont know how I remember this so well. I hadnt slept well on the bus and I was nodding off about every five minutes sitting there. The three hours passed and I was ready to board the bus. I waited until fove minutes passed the time it was to arrive and then asked some guy where the hell the bus was. He said it was right there, about to leave. They didnt tell me it was going to be a
different line! I ran out and right in the nick of time. I took a seat and off we went. The trip was pleasent until we reached the mountains. Not fun in a huge bus. Bumpy, twisty, with suicidal drop offs. Would have been a blast on a R6. I took one of the most amazing pictures up there. It makes me want to make a repeat trip down here. We stopped after two hours at customs and creeped through after an hour or so. Very uneventful. I got a pretty stamp in my passport though. After another two hours we arrived in Santiago, Chile.
Right as I got off some guy asked me if I needed a taxi. Usually I am pretty wary of these guys but I said sure because he was wearing a nice shirt and tie. Looked like a cab driver or someone working for the station. The asshole was neither and all he did was show me to the taxi stop 50 feet away. He said "Propina, Propina." Tip, tip. I gave him 500pesos Chilean, which is a dollar and he said "Mas." Ugh, great first impression.
Well, first impressions arent always true.
The city is very clean, but busy, and alittle more spaced out than BsAs. I think that I will be renting a bicycle here because it is not nearly as suicidal as it was in BsAs. I live on a street where all the embasies are located. Very upscale, very nice, very far from the school. Better than living in a shithole close to school I suppose. The school is beautiful here. Much larger than in BsAs or Bariloche. My teacher Fransisco is great and talks slowly which I aprreciate. I think that I will be having an excellent time here in Santiago. Especially since there is a Starbucks......
Yes, I went there today. I walked there with a Swiss girl named Julia, like Julia Roberts she tells me. I really dont think that this visit could have possibly meant more to her than to me. My eyes lit up when I saw the green circle surrounding the siren. I walked into the front door and got a wiff of home. It had been two months since I had a real cup of coffee, or latte, whatever. I went to the counter and told them that I had worked
at a Starbucks in Estados Unidos. The were happy to hear it so I went ahead and asked, "Can I make my own coffee?" They were surprised and the lady told me to hold on a moment. She went to the back and came back with an apron. I couldnt help but laugh. I made my own Triple Grande Vanilla Latte, and it was great. Pictures included. Afterwards I filled out a comment card saying how great a store it was.
Thats it for now folks. I will another entry soon. Keep your ears open for news on Columbia. Chavez is getting jumpy.
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