Advertisement
Published: November 10th 2006
There is always something magical about arriving in a country for the first time. I love the feeling of having a whole new place, or in this case a continent, to explore. It is quite a buzz, albeit also somewhat disorientating at first.
After a 13 hour flight from Madrid I had to endure a horrendous queue for customs before eventually emerging out of the airport and facing the inevitable mass of taxi drivers trying to lure me to into their cab. There were the usual lame lies - I was assured that the bus was 10 blocks away, only to find it about 10 yards from the entrance. On arrival at the bus station the next task was to get a ticket for the metro. This was easy enough, although I was rather alarmed to see my ticket being chewed up by the machine immediately. I continued on to the train ticketless, thinking I must have somehow neglected to see my ticket re-emerge. On the train I tried to think of how I could excuse myself in Spanish and get away without a fine. But there was no need to fret - the Santiago metro is the only one
I know which takes your ticket straightaway, with no need to reproduce it on arrival at the station. With a little help from a local, I found La Chimba hostel without too much ado. The hostel is located in Bellavista, which is a fairly quiet and sedate area, and the hostel itself is cosy and friendly.
I did not stay in the hostel long. I hadn´t slept much on the plane but was anxious to go for a wander. The hostel is a short walk from the San Cristobal hill, and I decided to use the funicular railway to reach the top. This seemed like a good idea until the thing actually got moving. Put it this away, I doubt they have any maintenance records. I couldn´t help but think that my trip was about to come to a ghastly ending before it had even got started. Somehow though, defying the law of gravity, I was safely deposited at the summit. And it proved to be well worth the effort, with superb panoramic views of the city. It was a perfect clear day, or at least it would have been had it not been for the layer of smog
which partially obsured the view of the surrounding Andes.
For my first evening I was lucky enough to find that it was barbeque night at the hostel. The manager produced a superb feast of all kinds of delicious meat. We simply had to sit back and enjoy our cold beer as our food was delivered piece by piece, tapas style. My only concern was the lingering resident dog, who doesn´t look like a rabies sufferer but you can never be sure! Thankfully, the dog seemed much more interested in the bits of juicy meat than my admittedly less juicy ankles. I am keeping my eye on it though..
It is hotter than I imagined it would be. And, as one of the hostel staff pointed out to me, it is not even summer yet. This is my first full day in Santiago and I have spent much of the day exploring downtown. I found my way to the main square, Plaza de Armas, and visited the cathedral and Santiago museum. Then I wandered some more before bumping into two Aussie guys who I met the night before. This happens to me frequently travelling - so frequently that it is almost unnerving, as I only rarely ever bump into anyone I know in my home city of Bristol. After a few hours hanging around with the Aussies, we came back to the hostel for a siesta. We plan to go out for a few beers tonight.
And so concludes my first blog entry. There will be plenty more to come, so stay tuned folks!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0386s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Vicki
non-member comment
Hi Stu, Glad you arrived safe and well and are enjoying your new surroundings. I'll look forward to hearing about your latest adventures in the coming months. put me on that diary entry email alert thingy. Boo for autumn colds , i feel like poo and can hardly breath! but yay for giving birth to beautiful babies! Have barely slept in a month but loving being a mummy. Take care honey x x x