Advertisement
Published: November 6th 2011
Edit Blog Post
The locals here have a saying “God is everywhere, but his office is in Santiago”. I’m still mulling over this, as I’m preparing to leave God’s office and to me there is only one word for Santiago and that’s “Subtle” and that I like subtle people, subtle things, subtle lives. It means something is not screaming out at you, but giving you time to decide for yourself, making up your mind as you go. I am falling for this subtle place in a subtle way.
Everything about the city is subtle and, I think, to a large degree underrated. In a couple of years the tourism industry from here will probably be booming, whereas at the moment, it’s just a day stop over either on your way to the desert or down South.
There is a hill, yes, a hill…called Cerro San Cristobal. You take this “funicular” up a hill which must be about 30-35 degrees steep! I was sceptical I don’t like places that is overly advertised and the tourist swarm the place. (I guess if you spend a day here, going up a hill is as much as you’re going to fit in). But up we went
and at the top, both Charle and myself kinda grew quiet. One of those places where you really can believe that something out there bigger than yourself exists. Where you think, if I stay long enough, I’ll find all the answers. Where you can stop being a realist and dream of things you would never dream of dreaming of.
A city mostly don’t have a calming effect, yet up there, between the Catholic church music, the Andes in the distance, the city spanning out for as far as the eye can see, you kind of settle down. The sun warms your skin, the wind cools you down and you can’t help but want to believe.
It’s a city that needs patience, it needs you to take your time and wander, ask the few English speaking locals what to do and what to see. It needs you to walk down-town to the fish market, ask around which is the best restaurant, eat the freshest seafood ever (at the best prices). It needs you to wander down whatever street you fancy and laugh at the contrast of CH$55,000 for a “Nike” t-shirt, where right in front of the same store,
there’s a stall selling 2 for CH5,000. It needs you to stop at the top of the subway stairs and listen to the brass band and look on in wander how a crowd of people spontaneously starts clapping. It’s a city that doesn’t shout out at you, it needs you to discover it. It’s not going to give you an idea of what to expect, it’s a city that needs you to figure it out for yourself. The most subtle place I’ve ever been, the most calming, yet exciting city that makes you wander as you pack your bag of all the things you have missed.
and my word….the food!!!
Both Cha and myself hated the food in Chile, it’s bread, bread and more bread and as much as I love it, goodness, neither my jeans nor the part of me that loves variety was happy! We stayed in an area called Bellavista. A street where they serve you a litre of beer for R35, where they serve horrible oily chips, then suddenly you hit “Patio Bellavista”, where you can eat the best food I’ve ever tasted! As I said goodbye to my travelling partner this morning, I said
to her; “good luck for the food back home”. The seafood, the wine, the ice-cream, the beer, it’s astonishing! I have never and will never taste Cordina with shrimp in the way I’ve tasted it here. With that I will never have another bottle of Calamenere (this is the only region in the world that produces this type of wine, it’s a smooth, easy drinking wine, but due to the circumstances and how the grape is grown, the alcohol content is extremely high, so our conversations started flowing after about 3 sips). This bit of info is thanks to Charle who actually made the wine tasting trip!
Furthermore, I haven’t been entirely honest the last 2 and a bit weeks. Yes, I’ve had my first South American hospital experience! Since Buenos Aires, my skin has been reacting to something, some allergy or something. It got progressively worse and on Friday we were supposed to go on a bike/wine tasting tour. I was at my worst, haven’t slept, I look like shit, my mood is bad and I started feeling terrible! I said to Charle to please do the tour and I sjlepped down the road to see the doctor.
No, this is not a horrific “corpses in the corridor South American hospital story”. This hospital was the greatest hospital I’ve ever been to! A country mile better than that shithole down the road from my house! Yes, you wait and yes I had to wait for an English speaking doctor, but it’s super clean, extremely organized and every single person I encountered was friendly, patient and helpful!
Turns out, all the changes made my body believe it’s being attacked by something and my immune system is completely overworking itself (guess that’s a good thing!) therefore my skin reacts to the sun, especially. All the hiking and 2 days on the beach did it no favours. The doctor was great, gave me my prescription and I think things are getting better! Needless to say I was the only person in downtown Santiago yesterday looking like a bloody mafia spy in a hat, sunglasses, long sleeved top and heaps of sunscreen in 30degree weather!! But I wasn’t going to miss the whole city, just because my immune system is a little overeager When I told the doctor I’ll be in Peru on Tuesday, he gave a little laugh and
said he has no idea how I’m going to stay out of the sun in Peru, ‘because there’s lots of it!’.
I am thankful I’m not sick in Bolivia….
As an afterthought, if you ever make it here, don’t even bother with the beaches. Vina del Mar is Durban North beach on a bad day! I couldn't even be bothered blogging about it. The waves are non-existent the town is crappy and full of apartment block upon overpriced apartment block. And my word, what is it with the stray dogs on this continent!!!
Now it's off on a 30-hour bus ride to Arica, through the Atacama desert of Chile, into Peru, BABY!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.145s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0978s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Freakshow
non-member comment
Ek is bly jy voel beter! Jy moet jouself oppas Rietta. Is Charle die meisie van RMB?? hoe het dit gebeur dat julle saam opge-eindig het? Jou trip klink amazing! Dinge gaan goed hier. ek dink daaraan om n MBA te gaan doen. ek wil graag harvard toe gaan = dit is n nuwe idee, so sal jou op hoogte hou van dinge!! lief jou baie vriendin - pas jou mooi op