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Published: April 12th 2009
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What a hectic few days! It started on the journey from Sydney to Santiago. I travelled across Sydney on public transport, checked out of my hostel and on to my flight (which was alramingly difficult, she mentioned things like´can´t find you a seat,´ ´flight too full´ and ´have to put you on standby´ - probably just to scare me -before allocating me a seat) before i went to the bathroom to realise i had a huge streak of toothpaste down my nose. I´ve given up trying to work out how i get myself into these situations.
Then there was the 16 hour flight. There was a stopover in Auckland (bit of a flashback for me to five weeks ago) and then back onto the plane and the same seats. By now the group of people who´d started to be a bit rowdy at the beginning of the flight were even louder (I later found out they were doctors - you think they´d know better) and they continued to demand more wine until one of them threw up said wine onto the plane - Nice.
So by the time i´d finally landed in Santiago I was pleased to leave the
drunks and the toothpaste incident behind me. It certainly wasn´t a lie that not many people speak English here. As I stood outside the airport contemplating whether to get the bus, shuttle or taxi to my hostel, several people babbled at me in spanish. One recurring man was convinced I was the english person he´d come to pick up and kept returning to me and pointing at the namecard he was holding and pointing at me. I tried to convince him with no Spanish whatsever that no I hadn´t preordered a taxi and I certianly wasn´t called ben. he didn´t seem convinced and kept coming back over calling´Ben´. Luckily someone who worked at the airport came and adopted me and saw me safely onto the shuttle bus to get me to the hostel.
Then, more fun, the bus driver didn´t speak a word of English. Luckily, I was sat next to a canadian who´d moved to chile years ago and he interpreted every time the driver babbled at me. I´d booked the hostel back in the uk in December and wheni finally got here I took out my booking form and gave it to the lady that worked here.
It turns out that since i´ve booked, the hostel has changed names and owners. Rather than explan this to me everyone behind the counter just looked at the form and laughed a lot. They even got someone from upstairs to come down to laugh at it. Sleep deprived, I didn´t find it very funny. Eventualy they composed themselves enough to explain the hilarious situation. I still didn´t find it very funny. Fortunately it wasn´t an issue as they had room for me anyway so after a good laugh they showed me to my room.
I thought after travelling for a while I´d come to the point where I could no longer be suprised by hostel rooms or sleeping arrangements having seen all combinations of bunkbed arrangements in Australia and NZ and whole families crowded onto one floor in Thailand. I was wrong. This room had kind of bunk-beds. Except the room was two stories high and the bottom bunks weren´t attached to the top bunks at all. in fact the top bunks were randomly strewn about the wall with a ridiculously high ladder to get to them. It was so haphazard, almost like cubby holes for beds, it reminded
me of something out of peter pan that the lost boys would sleep in. They hadn´t lied in their claims though that the ´beds are twin - big enough to make spoon with a couple or a teddy bear´so for 11 pounds a night I couldn´t complain. They had however lied with the claim that there was ´hot water all day´but seeing as actually the name of the hostel and the booking system online was all a lie I counted myself lucky I had a bed at all to ´make spoon´.
And in all the hostel´s very nice with a sun deck and free internet (hence i´m actually describing the place as i don´t have to pay for it) and the location´s not bad.
So after a cold shower and a catch up on sleep in the Peter Pan room I went to the sundeck in the evening and met a nice American couple who gave me the lowdown on the hostel. They explained how the intricate key system worked - it doesn´t. Hardly the high tech swipecard system of Australia or the ´we don´t lock any doors we live in the country´attitude i´ve seen in New Zealand
but just a doorbell. I guess it works though.
I´d noticed the stray dogs wandering up and down the street and mentioned them to the couple. I sensed some tension and eventually they explained their story about the local dog. Apparently he´d come running at them on their first day and the guy, Corey, bravely threw his girlfriend, Laura, in front of the dog as a human shield to protect himself. It´s been a running joke ever since.
Just going to the local shop is an adventure with the rabid dogs to escape on the way and then whole language barrier thing when i get there to buy something. The little man there and i have come to an understanding now that nothing we say to each other will be understood so he writes down how much money i need to give him on a piece of paper and i hand him some of my notes, feeling like a millionaire (2000 chilean pesos is a common note - about 2 pounds) and he rewards me with a toothless grin. Everyone´s happy.
The first night I slept for ages, not appreciating the doorbell system when someone came back
at 4am. I got up late and went to the sundeck with the people that worked in the hostel and the American couple. They insisted on making us a ´nice drink´ of pisco and guava and as it was a sunny afternoon and, being easter, everything was closed there seemed no good reason not to. So a day of cocktails on the sundeck and a day today wandering round the city and then sampling some nice chilean wine back at the hostel and my time in Santiago has come to an end. A few days in santiago seems enough though. I´ve met people who´ve been here longer and aside from seeing the buildings around the twn there seems likttle to actually do.
Tomorrow i´m off to Peru, where i´m meeting up with Daisy, a friend from home. She´s meeting me at arrivals, where she´s booked a taxi for us so hopefully this time there´ll be a board with my name on and i wont be confused for a ´Ben´. Wish me luck!
x x x
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Lou
non-member comment
ha ha ha
Hey this made me laugh!!! how funny!!! lol xxx