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Published: February 20th 2007
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When Glynn-o Met Chino
Meet Chino Moreno, lead singer of the Deftones. I think he may have left his happy face at home today... Hola amigos y amigas! It's hard to believe that just this morning we were still in New Zealand, still amongst a culture and language that we know and understand. So where are we now? In South America, that's where - and no-one here speaks English. Crikey!
Our day began at the ungodly hour of 4.15am in time for our shuttle to the airport. Our flight was at 7am and by 8.30am, we were in Auckland for the second time. Despite having over 9 hours to kill before our connecting flight, we didn't bother heading out into the city and instead explored the airport's facilities for a while before finding a corner to call home for the afternoon.
Our flight to Santiago left on time at 5.25pm and I can't complain about the quality of the Lan Chile flight which had on-demand movies, music, games and tv shows to help us while away the 11+ hours of travelling time. Originally we had been allocated seats in the central section but I managed to flutter my eyelashes at the man at the Qantas desk in Auckland and get us moved to a window and aisle seat position instead. We had a
Giant Beer
This.. ... is more.. ...like it...! great view of New Zealand as the land fell away until there was nothing but water below us for thousands of miles. Neither of us was particularly comfortable during the flight and we barely slept a wink. Every now and again I glanced out of the porthole and caught glimpses of sunset and sunrise with awesome views of the stars and the night sky in between. I'm sure I could even make out the feint icy glow of the comet that has been visible from New Zealand for a few weeks. As we neared the South American coastline, it was clear and sunny affording us wonderful first views of the mostly parched volcanic plateaux that typify the Chilean landscape. When the plane banked round to come in for landing, we even saw some of the magnificent snow-capped peaks of the Andes (which are not on the end of your wristies after all!) poking through the low-lying cloud that always seems to cling to these rocky ranges. It was beautiful.
In the baggage hall, we waited nervously for our bags. We hadn't seen them since Christchurch and there's always that nagging worry that they won't turn up, especially when you're
Halleluja!
Glynn thinks he may at last have found a religion worth following! on a connecting flight. It took ages for them to come but thankfully both bags were safe and sound. While we were waiting for our bags to come, we noticed a small commotion in the hall. We wondered if there might be a local celebrity in our midst as we noticed people pointing and camera flashes going off all of a sudden. But then Glynn's eyes widened as he realised who it actually was that was drawing all the attention - a rock band called The Deftones! It seems that all the hours Glynn spent watching KerrangTV had finally paid off when he recognised the lead singer, Chino Moreno (I know some of their music but wouldn't have a clue what any of them look like). The poor guy was looking a bit harrassed by all the unwanted attention with people hassling him for an autograph or unceremoniously pointing cameras at him without asking for permission first. Glynn was keen to get a photo too but didn't want to add to the guy's misery. Later, when things had quietened down a little, the band seemed more relaxed so Glynn seized the opportunity to ask Chino for a photo. The singer looked absolutely exhausted but because Glynn asked politely, Chino seemed pleasantly surprised and was happy to oblige. Cool!
We booked ourselves a seat on the TransVIP shuttle bus service and after a two-hour tour of Santiago where we dropped off everyone else, we finally arrived at our accommodation - the Casa Roja in Barrio Brasil. We have a lovely room in an old converted traditional mansion. Our room has a high ceiling with a lovely ornate border and ceiling rose; the bedroom doors are two huge slabs of wood almost twice as high as Glynn with a separate little window at the very top to allow light and ventilation (there are no actual windows in the room). Our bed has an old fashioned carved wooden head- and footboard both cushioned in sumptuous violet velvet and it's sooooooo comfy :-)
Although it was only 4pm on the same day when we arrived, we had technically been awake for one and a half days to get here (we went back in time, you see). Rather than head straight to sleep, we tracked down the local supermarket a few blocks away and picked up some mega cheap freshly baked bread rolls, cheese and salad then stopped to take a look at the pirate DVDs on sale on the pavement outside. They only cost 1,000 pesos (about 95p) and we couldn't believe just how openly they were being sold - we didn't have Chile pegged as a hotbed of backmarket activities.
We ate dinner in the gorgeous little courtyward and washed it all down with a couple of giant one-litre bottles of beer from reception that cost only £1 each! We got chatting to a German couple and an English guy who later invited us to join him and some friends for a drink. It was a seriously tempting offer but by then we were just too damn tired. Shame. still, what a brilliant start to the final leg of the big trip!
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