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Published: March 31st 2015
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Sarah: Another day, another journey! We were up early-ish for our "6 hour" bus trip to Santiago, Chile. After a day on the wine tour and a night in with the guys on the free wine and only cold showers in our hostel (or hot at a dribble), this was not the most welcome day of our travels. However, this is what we were here for, so travel we must!
The good news was that our bus was heading over the Andes to Santiago, so we were in for some pretty spectacular scenery on the way. Between snoozes, we got some great views as we wound through the mountains and arrived at the border crossing with Chile. The bus parked up in the midst of snow covered mountains and a long queue of cars, lorries and buses. We weren't really sure what was going on, but an hour later we were frogmarched in order of seat number on the bus to immigration (which was basically a big bus terminal in the mountains). We queued in true British fashion, not wanting to go to the toilet in case we lost our place or someone thought we were pushing in on return.
Up San Cristobal after a day of fun in Santiago!
For some reason, we had in our heads that Santiago was much-of-a-muchness, but is actually on-par with Rio for best South American city so far. We had to wait at the Argentinian border control to get out, followed by the Chilean border control to get in (including anxieties from me that I would be left in limbo having been let out of Argentina but not in to Chile). After leaving the former, entering the latter and ducking in to the toilet before the bus left, we were snaking out of the Andes.
Our "6 hour" bus arrived 9 hours after departure so on arrival in Santiago we followed the directions to the hostel via the metro, scrubbed up and headed out for dinner. We wandered round our local neighbourhood (Providencia) and found a lot of bars and 'proper' pubs were very busy and there was a lively ol' atmosphere. We felt positive that the next day after a good rest, we would enjoy Santiago! We had one day to explore Santiago before flying down to the Chilean Lake District. The hostel had boiled eggs laid out for breakfast which is turning in to a bit of a high water mark for me. It was all watermelon and papaya in Brazil, nice, but not up to egg standards.
We headed to the bus station
to sort out some travel for the Lake District, which took us a bit out of the centre, with a view to wandering back to see what we found on the way. We made our way back through a variety of different districts seeing lots of different architecture, street art and people on the way. The one common factor was that there were young students everywhere, as opposed to being surrounded by tourists. It was a nice change and really warmed us to the city. It's difficult to put our fingers on it, but we just really, really liked the atmosphere and people.
In the afternoon, we couldn't resist a trip up the funicular to San Cristobal hill to get a panoramic view of the city. Think Christ the Redeemer in Rio only a lot more civilised! There were some spectacular views of Santiago with the Andes in the background. The funicular stops at the zoo on the way up the hill which was also too much temptation. The emu was a highlight; the swan exhibit, not so spectacular!
After a days tramping, it was back to the hostel for showers and straight back out for dinner. We
ended up with some sharing plates and then headed off to find one of the lively bars we had spied on our first night. We stumbled across some live music provided by a nice Argentinian who we got to know after his performance of the very catchy 'Yo no se maƱana' ('I don't know tomorrow', which is still in my head today). He was later accompanied by some English students from Leeds singing Dawson's Creek-sounding songs (including the DC theme tune). Later still, entertainment was provided in the form of karaoke and meeting two Chileans, Juan and Pablo, who kindly took the mic when 'Angels' by Robbie Williams was chosen and insisted that Nick and I sing it, which we did, with gusto (much to the enjoyment of the locals). In the early hours of the morning we headed back, searching in vain for burgers / kebabs. Santiago needs a Kings Grill!
The next day we headed over to the airport, sad to leave Santiago so soon. Unfortunately our karaoke-addled brains led to our trusty corkscrew being confiscated in the airport after it got left in hand luggage. We arrived in Pucon late at night on the bus. We
were really pleasantly surprised to be met by our hostel owner, Rodrigo, who had been waiting for us at the bus station! Despite not speaking a jot of English, he talked us through the emergency evacuation procedures in case of volcano eruption and showed us various maps and things to do. Hopefully we understood the most important points i.e. the direction to walk away from recently erupted volcano!
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