Santiago Soccer Fever

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Hi All, Well as you can tell we´ve moved on to a new country and continent. Chile is a very interesting country and well worth the week we stayed there. Ask most people who´ve been to Santiago and they´ll tell you to get out of there ASAP. It´s not nice, aparently, fellow bloggers and travellers generally tent to hate it.
We however found it a really cool place that has it´s own way of doing things. It really reminds me of an eastern European city with a strange and ugly mix of gorgeous colonial magnifigance and then plenty of concrete block towers to spoil the view. Unlike former Soviet bloc states who had half or more of their cities blown up during the war and replaced by concretia, Chile had earthquakes and plenty of them, so there´s generally a steady supply of work for builders round these parts and generally a steady demand for concrete.
Santiago is built in a deep Andean Valley and as a result rarely gets any wind, this leads to warm temperatures with little breezy relief and lots of smog that just tends to linger above the city. Unfortunately this tends to distort the glorious views of the Andes that provide the perfect backdrop to the city. It´s not uncommon to go to San Cristobal (a hill in the middle of the city) and not actually be able to see the towering peaks of the Andes just the other side of the city. We went up one day and could barely make out the outline of the nearby foothills, despite it being a glorious day.
I can see how some might say the city might lake some spirit, it doesn´t have the Tango of Buenos Aires or the Samba of Rio which I think relegates it to lower class status for most travellers, but be there when they beat (arch rival) Peru 3 - 1 in a world cup qualifier and you´ll see the heart and the passion of the capital of Chile. It was a great atmosphere, Maeve and I were walking into the city centre for something to eat. There was a strange tense feeling in the streets. We didn´t realise that the match was on at all. All the bars were full, all of the apartment balconies were full and everybody on the street seems to be huddled together in groups. As a guy was walking towards us with a set of headphones in his ears, he just started to punch the air and instanteniously the entire city erupted, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, (as only latin people can). The cheers and roars came from every direction, even the police were dancing in the streets shouting Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol. After about 5 minutes things quietened down again and our progress through the streets quickened then it all happened again Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, dos zero, dos zero, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol. We passed a beggar/hobo who had set off the alarm in a nearby bank, there were cops nearby but they didn´t care they were too busy re-enacting the Gol in question - imagine the scene 4 cops on the footpath outside a bank in the middle of being bungled by said hobo and all you can see is the 4 cops running aroud with an imaginery ball - (Sanchez to Gomez, Gomez passes Peru no. 4, Gomez, Gomez, GOMEZ, GOMEZ, Gomez to Raimeres, Raimeres with the low ball across the box and here´s comes Gomez again, he shots -----Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol, Gol. And then to ensure replay accuracy they do it again and again for good measure).
Things quietened down again and we got to an Irish bar just before half time. We settled down ordered some nurishment and refreshment just as the whistle blew. Somewhere along the way Peru had scored but there wasn´t much celebration for that one. About halfway through the second half it became 3-1 and one local went beserk. After nearly thrashing the table he was sitting at, drowning the people at his table with their own beer, he ran out the door and started shouting the most godawful abuse at the restaurant across the narrow street. We wondered what the neighbours had done to receive such abuse - it was a Peruvian restaurant - I suppose that´s reason enough.
Miliseconds after the final whistle the whole scenario was played out again, the destruction of the table was almost completed, the customers were redrowned in their own beer and the poor old Peruvians were subjected to more unpolitically correct abuse, only this time the bar owner was as involved as the customer.
We headed home soon after the end of the match. Santiago ofically went nuts. The Plaza Italia was quickly filling up with the masses, singing, shouting, dancing. Every car in the city was now driving around beeping, shouting, singing and dancing. The cars were wedged full of people on ythe inside and Chilean flags on the outside. Pick ups went by, and then busses, it ws as if there was a competition to see who could have the most Chilean suporters on 4 wheels. It was electric, the guys selling flags in the traffic were doing a strong trade and as stocks dwindled inflation was much higher than would be usual for Chiles economy.
It was a real pity that this was all so spontaneous as we didn´t have the camera with us to record the atmosphere. Also sorry for the slow uploading of any pictures. It seems in S. America so far that most computers are of the pre-usb vintage and those that aren´t are of the pre-broadband internet vintage. I´ll keep trying hopefully I´ll get a computer with a USB and Broadband together. We do have great pictures and they are worth the wait.

Historical Note:
The intense rivalry and hatred between Chileans and Peruvians stems from 2 equally strange incidents;
1.) a national drink claimed by both countries as their own and
2.) a war over fertiliser,
strange but true.

Pisco is a town in Peru and home of Perus national drink the famed "Pisco Sour" - quite nice like a rum with bitter lemon. Chile claims that the drink is theirs, for reasons I have yet to discover.

A long time ago there was a gold rush in fertiliser - Nitrogen and (possibly) Sulphur to be exact (I should have paid more attention in the museum). In the North of Chile is the Atacama desert which was rich in said minerals. Strangley Chile agreed to let Peru have some or most of the land where these rich resources were to be found on the understanding that Peru wouldn´t impose any import tarrifs for these minerals.
Peru said
1.)´absolutely not´,
2.)´thank you for the land´and
3.)´here´s our new import tarrifs for fertiliser´.
The Pacific war insued and I really didn´t pay enough attention in the museum to see who actually won but anyway they don´t really like each other as a result.

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