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Published: June 12th 2009
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On leaving Bariloche the bus made a bee line for the Andes as we had to cross over them in order to get to Chile. Thankfully the border crossing went smoothly and in order to get stamped into Chile the bus driver collected all passports and national id and the conductor duly disappeared whilst the bus proceeded to move off. Sharon and I did have minor concerns although my theory was that the whole bus was in the same situation... thankfully whilst the bags were being checked through customs the conductor arrived back with our duly stamped passports.
On arrival in Osorno we had to find an atm to get some Chilean pesos and then arrange our onward bus journey to Santiago. the ATM was no problem and we then had to tackle the various booths offering buses to Santiago. We are now pros in finding out bus times and cost in our broken Spanish after visiting about 5 different booths and having prices range from £9 to £32. Tickets booked we had a 5 1/2 hour wait and Osorno bus station was not an inspirational place to spend those hours so we booked our bags into the luggage custody
and wandered into the town. Having read our bible (Lonely Planet) we knew that the town had little to offer so we found a cafe and spent a few hours over a couple of drinks and playing cards. Eventually however we were driven out of there by the cold so we headed back along the high street and ended up wasting time in a department store and supermarket!!
Eventually we caught our bus and arrived in Santiago early Monday morning. We checked into our hostel and had the pleasure of the best breakfast we have had since Brazil - fresh scrambled egg, fresh fruit and bread! We then headed into the centre of Santiago. I will admit that Santiago is the most disappointing city so far on the trip. We found ourselves in Plaza das Armas and wandered around the Cathedral. We also found ourselves in the post office where they had a museum detailing the history of post in Chile (it was free so we went round it....!) Having wandered around the shops we decided to be adventurous and have a completo for lunch. A completo is a type of hot dog that they specialise in over here
A close up of the alter
These photos are to show I can be cultured occasionally!! - i went with an Italiano so it was a hot dog topped with chopped avacado, diced tomato and mayonnaise and Sharon went with a Complejo which is topped with chucrut (a from of sauerkraut made from carrot) and diced tomato whilst they may not sound nice they actually tasted nice and for the bargain price of 60p each we weren't complaining!!
On review of the bible we decided that apart from going to visit the Cerro San Cristobal and the Virgin Mary statue ( Santiagos equivalent of Rios Christ the Redeemer!) there was very little else to do or see so we decided that we would cut our days in the city down and move on Wednesday. The rest of the afternoon we wandered around the city and decided to watch a film that night so we went to see Angels and Demons which both of us enjoyed.
In part explanation of the title blog since Bariloche I have been suffering with a rash over my two arms and legs. Unfortunately the reason for the rash hasn't been established but I have narrowed it down to either washing detergent or something at the hostel. However by Tuesday
the rash had grown and was driving me crazy despite starting to take the ultra strong antihistamine tablets I got on prescription before leaving for my travels. Another guy at the hostel recommended that I try some nappy rash cream to try and stop the itching and heat, he had some as he has various tattos and uses it to look after them so gave me some to try. I also decided it was worth buying some new clothes to see if it stopped the spread of the rash. So that morning we headed to the bus station and bought or tickets to La Serena and then I bought myself a very fashionable outfit (black jogging bottoms, 2 t-shirts and a red hooded top!) I also stalked around a pharmacy for nappy rash cream as it seemed to be helping. Anyway I am pleased to report after strong anti-inflammatories, paracetamol, nappy rash cream and new clothes things seems to be slowly improving!! The next mission will be to wash all my clothes but make sure it is an non-bio soap powder and they use nothing else!!
Anyway after this mini mission we headed over to Cerro San Cristobal and
caught the funicular train to the top. Unfortunately having seen Christ in Rio the Virgin Mary didn't really match up. We had a reasonable view of the city with the Andes as a backdrop however the smog over the city was heavy so did somewhat mar the view. We then decided to walk down the mountain but what we thought should take us 30 minutes took us over an hour as we seemed to go on various extensive detours around the mountain.
Wednesday morning saw us up and leave the hostel early for our 7 hour bus La Serena and the stars....
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