Santiago de Chile and Valparaíso

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Hola Chicos!

So, keeping up with my blogs, I am taking up where I left off, Buenos Aires! I flew from BA to Santiago, and had a little bit of a problem going through customs in Chile. For some reason, the girl was convinced that I must be carrying something illegal into the country. I don´t think I look particularly like a drug trafficker or fruit smuggler, but she was absolutely convinced I had something on her important list of illegal items! She pointed at photos of fruit, to which I told her no, and she frowned and said "dried fruit?", to which I replied no, again. I do know dried fruit is still fruit. Then asked if I had any ´artesenales´, like artifacts from Argentina. Again, I didn´t, so no was the answer. And she couldn´t believe it. " Really?" was the response. "Yes, really, I have no wooden masks or feathers from Argentina". Then I thought I was being allowed through, before she stopped me again, and said "nuts, you must have nuts!" And this she would not let drop! No, I told her, I don´t even like nuts! "You must have nuts, at least!" What does that even mean? Do they have a quota to fill or something each day of people carrying in nuts?! Eventually, she let me through, grudgingly!

Now, I don´t know what you have heard about Santiago, but in all honesty, I was not expecting much. But it is a really great city! It has some fantastic museums housing collections of old South American art, pottery, textiles, etc. Plus a cool funicular railway to get an amazing view of Santiago´s really awesome setting among mountains. And a cool area called Bellavista in which there are lovely little bookshops, cafés and bars.

I had a really lovely sociable hostel for my first 2 nights, got to meet some nice people to explore the city with, cook with, get drunk with...

Then I moved hostel to hotel to start my tour part of this trip, which takes me from Santiago up to La Paz via the salt flats and Atacama desert. It was so nice to be in a hotel! I arrived, and just lay in my bed watching America´s Next Top Model! I am sharing a room with a nice lady called Sue, and the rest of my group is really laid-back and easy to get on with, so the next couple of weeks should be good!

I took myself out of Santiago for the day to a place just over an hour out of the city to the coast called Valparaíso. I think weather plays an important part in your opinion of a city, and I arrived to clouds and light drizzle. Bear in mind, I had come from Santiago, where it was hot sun (35 degrees) and blue skies, so I was dressed in a light skirt and vest. So I was fairly chilly, but thought I had better stick with my plan, so went for a wander. It´s quite a quirky place, lots of coloured building on a hill with a port containing old navy ships. Quite interesting, but I was feeling the cold, so headed to a cinema I had spotted on my walk through town, thinking I would see whatever was showing, maybe Avatar, Sherlock Holmes or something in Spanish to test myself. I got there and they had 2 movies that afternoon: ´Big Tit Show 4´ or ´Gang Bang My Ass´. Now, I hadn´t seen the first ´Big Tit Show´ let alone the following 3, so I didn´t want to feel like I was missing a key part of the storyline there. And to be honest, I wasn´t really in the mood for watching ´Gang Bang My Ass´ so I headed back to the bus station and the warmth and bustle of Santiago!

From Santiago, we headed up to La Serena, where I am now! Hurray I am finally up to date! La Serena is a nice little seaside town with great seafood, and from here we are heading up to San Pedro de Atacama tomorrow.

Take care everyone! xx

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Comments

[Komal Verma]

LOL
Ah man, you should have totally seen 'Gang Bang My Ass' hahaha.