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Published: April 3rd 2005
fresh snow
newly fallen snow capping the Andes in the backdrop of the city of SantiagoThe bus has become my new friend... and new mode of transportation throughout South America. There really isn't a train system in South America from what I've seen, and the flights are still quite expensive, so the bus is the way everyone gets around. I got on an overnight 10-hour bus ride back up to Santiago and made it into the city early in the morning. I checked back into my little guest house in Providencia (Av. Condel Guest House) and did some laundry that was well overdue.
I had kept in touch with the New Hampshire Trade Mission director and offered to help them with a tourism expo the following day in Santiago. I met up with Michelle (New Hampshire International Trade Center co-director) at the Intercontinental Hotel and we set up a booth for the following day for the "visit USA" tourism expo and then went to a little post dinner drinks and food event where I met the president of LAN airlines and people from most of the big travel agencies in Santiago. The president of this "visit USA" group was actually from Chile but spent most of his life in Australia and now works at promoting tourism
new friends of friends
a friend of a friend from high school...it's a small world. Always nice to meet people from the city you're in. to the US. He was a cool guy and gave me some great insight on working in S. America.
The following day at the tourism expo it was just me, Michelle and a translator at the booth. I soon became fluent in promoting the state of NH (and explaining where it was in the USA most of the time). The translator was mainly for Michelle, to translate when she gave a larger presentation. It was funny to be in Chile and promoting tourism to NH, a place nobody has ever heard of. I could have told them there was a tropical rain forest in NH and they would have believed me. Describing the state made me miss NH, it really is a beautiful state. After a full day at the touism booth on my feet I was ready for some dinner and a bed.
The following night I met up with a friend of a friend of mine from High School (thanks Leif) who was a prof. downhill mtn bike racer...at the age of 19. I met up with her and her brother and another friend and we went out for some dinner and karaoke. They were really nice, fun
Guest House mom
me with the owner of the guest house and her husband...such friendly warm people, and a colorful little house too. people. It was so funny to hear them try to sing songs in english, there were definitely some new words constructed that evening.
I spent another day in Chile and then decided that it was too expensive to live in Santiago unless I got a job. In addition, the city didn't really seem to have an edge. Very nice warm people though, a great place to live and work when you're middle-aged.
I went to the bus station and booked a ticket to Mendoza, Argentina (on the other side of the Andes) and then would make my way back to Buenos Aires. What a beautiful view driving through the mountains! Definitely a little shady at times, the roads zig zagged back and forth without guardrails as we played chicken with oncoming large logging-type trucks...all part of the excitement!
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