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Wow! I can’t believe that it’s been almost four years since I posted my last blog to share with my beloved Travelblog friends! “What happened to you, Tab”? Yes, what happened to me? Well, first I had an accident in Africa in 2018 and I was forced to cut down my trip. I flew back to Canada for an imminent surgery on my leg. Then the downtime ended when I planned to travel back to Africa again in 2020 to cover Rwanda genocide! Bang! The pandemic hit the world and destroyed our world order. Like many of you, I was restless but powerless to change the world. So, what did I do? Well, I continued to write my experience of traveling around the world and publish them as books. I got inspiration from my aunt, an academician in India and an avid reader with infinite energy of penning down her analytic but spiritual mind. She once told me - “Write your journey and share with friends. One day, you will leave this world, but your books will stay...forever”. She is no more. Covid has taken her away. But her words will stay with me as long as I live. She was
so right! And my books will stay as a living tribute to her.
So, here I am! Like all of you, I am trying to lead my life back to normal again. And guess what! I come to you with my new series of blogs....my travel to Chile in May 2023! Hope you would like them.
*****
The AA flight started its final descent to Santiago, Chile. It has been a long 10 hours journey from Dallas. Since it was an overnight flight, I managed to catch some sleep in my window seat. Usually 3-4 hours of sleep is good enough for me at night. Once I heard the announcement, I fastened my seat belt and looked out the window. Dawn was just breaking in. I was curious to have a glimpse of the city in the early morning twilight. I could see the Andes range in the distant horizon, rising high against the half-lit sky. A heavy layer of smog hung over the city, thus obscuring my view. Once the aircraft lowered further, cluster of high rises came to my view. Further down, the aircraft flew over a large array of solar panels and touched down
the runway of Santiago International Airport, also known as
Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport. Let me rewind a bit. I found a lucrative deal from American Airlines in 2022 for traveling to Chile in 2023. No, I didn’t think twice. I been to Peru, but Chile was in my bucketlist for a long time. As such, I am a mountain lover. I feel speechless whenever I am in front of mountains – so graceful, so magnanimous. Andes fascinates me, and Patagonia brings dreamland whenever I see any pictures. And why only Patagonia? The diverse landscape of Chile has always amazed me. Starting from Patagonia in south to Atacama desert in the North with the beautiful Lake District in the middle - Nature has poured its beauties everywhere in Chile.
“Ryan, would you be interested joining me?” – I showed the AA deal to my colleague who is also a travel buff.
Ryan looked at the advertisement and looked at me,
“How many days for”? He asked
“Hmm, 10 days max. I don’t think I can afford more time than that”, I replied
“Ok, I’m in. You make the plan and keep me in the
loop”. So, there we go! I dived to my Excel spreadsheet to make a plan for hotel, tours and flights, and Ryan followed through.
“Are you crazy? Chile is a big country and 10 days is not enough,” one of friend who spent time in Chile in many occasions, told me one day.
“Well, it is what it is. That’s all I have for now”,
“What are you covering?” He asked.
I gave him my bucket list in short – Santiago, Valpariso, Puerto Varas, Punta Arenas, Patagonia and San Pedro, Atacama. He sighed and shook his head!
“How can you visit so many places in 10 days? Are you nuts?”
“Well, I will try my best”, I gave him a wink with a smile.
Immigration was orderly and we picked our luggage from the conveyor belt in time and headed for the exit. Cabbies crowded outside the terminal, but we decided to take it from the counter inside the terminal. Just to be on the safe side in an unknown city. When we hit the highway, Santiago was just waking up. I could see some joggers at a distant, stray dog curled up
sleeping in some corner of a park, a light screen of fog covered the distant high rises, - a calm and serene early morning collage of a populous city. The Best Western Estancio Central is close to University of Santiago and the taxi dropped us in front of the hotel. It was around 7:30 am.
“Beuenos Dios”, a smiling receptionist greeted us in Spanish. I was not courageous to practice my broken Spanish; I remembered very well what happened in Costa Rica where I tried to reply hotel receptionist in Spanish. At the end, I almost begged him to speak in English.
“We have a reservation”, I produced my paper. The gentleman checked the booking and told us to come after 2pm for check in. Yes, I know the rules. No hotel would check you in at 7:30 am. But my breakfast was included in the reservation and I knew I will miss the breakfast for the day if I check in after 2 pm.
“Well Sir, no check-in, no breakfast”, the guy was apologetic.
“
Well tried, smarty pant” I thought of myself. I checked my watch and asked him where to go so early in
the morning. We found there is a mall close by and we could hang around there leaving our luggage to the hotel.
“Let’s go the mall, I’m sure we can have some coffee and quick breakfast over there”, Ryan told me. So we headed to the mall. It’s a walking distance from the hotel and the roads were almost empty. What didn’t occur to us, that the mall only opens at 9 am. So, we hung around a bit until the mall opened and we looked for some coffee and breakfast. The food court was spacious and stores were just opening. Once we finished some hearty breakfast, my next order of business was to purchase a potable wifi, which is commonly known as ‘dongle’. This is a device I always buy first thing wherever I travel. It makes life so much easier. No change of SIM cards in my smart phone, no dependency of hotel or airport wifi – I use my phone/internet wherever I go and I always have wifi in my pocket. Patricio, my good friend from Chile told me what model to buy. So, I went to a mobile store in the mall and inquired about
it. There comes the first struggle. No English speaking staff! None of us could understand each other. There I found this kind lady who was shopping in the store with her daughter. She knew how to speak English and she stepped forward to help us out. What she told me that I could buy the device alright, but not the internet plan. For buying an internet plan, one needs a local ID in Chile. I am a foreigner; I didn’t have any local ID. Well, I was thinking what to do. The lady came to my rescue. She offered me to buy the plan using her ID. I was stunned! She even didn’t know me and I am a foreign tourist. And she offered me to use her ID! Will any of us in North America do that – offering a foreigner our social insurance number? But she did! And that’s what the people of Chile are – so friendly! Their friendliness, their trust on others amazed me. That’s the generosity I found in the people of Chile over and over again. Hats off to them! The old truth was proven once again - language is not a barrier in
friendship. Speaking about language, Google translate in my smart phone was so helpful, wherever I went. Even to purchase my train ticket while traveling in metro, it helped me immensely using Google translate in my smart phone. Needless to say, my ‘dongle’ came handy every time!
We took the underground metro to visit the Palacio de La Moneda or the President’s palace. This is the seat of the President of Republic of Chile. I had a long time interest to visit this historical palace which has witnessed ups and down in history so many times. As recent as in September 1973 the palace has witnessed the death of President Salvador Allende in a coup-d’état orchestrated and supported by the CIA. The silent Palace has endured the pain of dictator Augusto Pinochet in post Allende regime when the streets of Santiago were battle field against the unpopular president. Till today, the sentiment remains the same among many commoners. They despise Pinochet. So much of history is embedded in every stone of this palace! Indeed, I wanted to view the palace in my own eyes. We got out of the metro station at La Moneda stop and took a short walk
down the path of history in a sunny afternoon. Scattered tourists like us were taking photos of the palace compound and we did the same. I could spend some more time to feel the sombreness of the palace compound, but we were running out of time. We still wanted to visit Costanera Centre, the tallest building in South America.
“What about Costanera?’, Ryan asked
“Let’s take a look at the City from top, shall we?” I tried to convince him.
“And?
“Chilled beer!
“Ok, I’m game”, Ryan gave me a broad smile.
To be honest, I enjoy having a bird’s view of a big city from the top. That gives me an idea about the expanse of the city. I checked my watch, it was 2 pm and Costanera is at the other end of the city. We decided to hop on the subway again. Ryan is very tech savvy and he has been excellent in checking out direction online. We estimated it would take us half hour to reach Los Leones metro station from La Moneda. And then it’s a short walking distance and the building is around the corner of Providencia Av.
Lower floors of the building are designed as shopping plaza and were swarmed with people, mostly younger generations. Like all other skyscrapers in the world, one needs to purchase ticket to go to the top of the 62 floor building. The view of the city from the viewing galary was spectacular! Santiago is full of high rises and from the top we could get a feel of how they are spread out. The city has its share of smog which I could see when we first landed. From the top of Costanera, I could see the layers of smog at a distance. Despite it, view of the city bathing in setting sun was spectacular. To me, it was worth a trip to Costanera and I would recommend the same to others. Ending the tour with chilled ‘cerveza’ was a perfect closure of the day. While riding the subway back to hotel, we felt the rush hour traffic, but it was manageable. Personally, I was delighted to experience that. And guess what! We were way past the normal check in time of the hotel and our room was all ready for us to call it a day. But not yet!
We took the elevator to the second floor restaurant and grabbed an excellent meal! I must say that was a perfect closure of the day! Next, - Valpariso.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Welcome back!
Pleased to hear that you recovered from your Africa trip. Now to see if you survive Chile.