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Published: December 1st 2005
Que pasa dIARY!
i´ve arrived in Santiago! yeeeaaarrhh, The travel excitement FINALLY hit me when i was looking out the window of the plane, waiting to see the first sight of this huge continent that i will call home for the next year.(see photo, i was reeeeaaaalllly excited right then ;·)
Hit the airport and managed to spit some spanish at the hoards of taxi/shuttle/bus drivers all vying for my Pesos the moment i step out of customs, like bee´s to the honey. After a 20 hour journey it was a nice little welcoming. Turns out the guy i picked, was actually pretending he knew where i was staying. no pasa nada, we found it pretty easily, it´s on the main square of the city, Plaza de Armas. All worth it though, what a square and what a hostal. Definately paid off searching through the thousand of hostals over the internet. BEST EVER.
So first things fipst, find food and somewhere to wash my clothes from the frazzled no fish finding weekend in Sydney. oh yeah Sydney, shit feels like so long ago after that flight.
Sydney, sheesh, its a beautiful city, Saturday fishing in
here fishy...
"follow the birds!"Kingfisher Bay not far from Big Kerry P´s house and Sunday sippin cervezas at the Beach hotel in Bondi. Aaah the good life, thanks to everyone there for such a sweet start to my travels. ( shout out to Baz,Jimmy, Jags, Mikey,Kate and Sarah and Phillipa, great to see and meet you all, hope i can oneday repay your hospitality & great cooking, and baz especialmente for your underated Airport pick up and drop off)
So Santiago is definately one of those cities, where you feel all eyes are on the tall skinny gringo. Every time i walk into a shop i feel like everyone is listening to what i´m about to say. And this does not help my struggling spanish confidence at all. Its the second day now and im starting to feel a little more relaxed, hopefully each day gets a little easier. I found a nice little back alley cafe that serves great traditional food and made sure i tipped well on the first day. Came back today and everyone seemed to be smiling, either getting ready to quietly laugh at my funny spanish or the forthcoming tip. Probably both. They are looking after me like
their long lost son anyhow.
This is a photo from the closest mountain to the city, took me about 20 minutes to get there walking from my hostal. So amazing, but pictures don´t do it justice, Santiago is located over a massive area that is completely flat and topped with a magnifico Andes backdrop. 5 million people live here. Awesome sight but most of the Andes is covered by the pollution and humidity of the city. Highlight of the day was at the top of the mountain standing under the San Cristobal statue surrounded and chatting in spanish with a group of Chilean school kids. They were on an excursion, it was an 500 mile journey for them to get there, they thought it was pretty cool when i told them i had come from kangaroo country over 10,000 miles away. Was also sweet to be able to stir them about Australia being in the Copa de Mundo (world cup) and Chile not.
The hostal has put me in a room with three really sweet girls from Finland. Its nice to talk english with them and have a little company but at the same time i would rather
TIERRA TIERRA!!!
el primera vista de Chile (very excited) be thinking only in spanish. (determined to not make the same english speaking friends mistake i made in Spain) We all went to dinner last night, I ate Mixto de Diablo. Which is a mix of mushrooms, beef in a white wine sauce. WORST MEAL I´VE EVER EATEN. Its not called the Devils mix for nothing.
Spending one more day here in Santiago then tomorrow i´, getting out of here to go climb a Volcano which is 10hours south by bus and 4000m above sea level. Maybe i can see my house from there. Stay tuned for my most excellent extreme adventure.
Made some cool friends today, french couple and japanese and swedish dude. makes for interesting chats.
hasta pronto y suerte por todas
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Very interested your travel... ViVa Chile