Blogs from Santiago, Santiago Region, Chile, South America - page 132

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South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago December 12th 2004

We arrived in Santiago after our longest bus journey to date, twenty three hours on a bus from San Pedro de Atacama in the north of the country. We were met at the bus station by Claudio, the owner of Donde Claudio where we would be staying. He was a jolly Chileano with perfect English and immediately set about organising everything from doctor's appointments to transport to the airport for us. His hostel was great too, very communal, relaxed and sociable. The location of the hostel was perfect, it felt like a quiet suburban area (there was a ballet school across the road with classical music coming from it every morning and hardly any cars) but we were only a ten minute walk from the city centre. The area, Bellavista was also the location of some ... read more
The Museo de las Bellas Artes
A Horsey
Sarah in the beautiful garden at Cerro Santa Lucia

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago October 30th 2004

Hi again, I´m just goint to recount a few things that happened while we were in Santiago. Just a short summary of October. If you managed to see our JourneyFile blog, please go straight to the next entries. It just makes me feel better to have some sort of starting point here. We arrived in Santiago on October 2nd and started our Spanish classes two days later. For five days a week, four hours a day we struggled and made our heads hurt for the rest of October. But it is paying off now. In between classes and on weekends we did manage to get out of the city a couple times. In Valparaiso for a weekend, which was like being transported to a small Italian coastal town. Steep, winding street that we didn´t mind getting ... read more

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago October 29th 2004

Just a quick post...been needing to get a new blog started...will be posting old entries soon, and new ones...damn, we're behind! Heading out of Santiago for the second time today, on to San Pedro de Atacama. More to come on Valparaiso, Mendoza, Cajon de Maipo, and Easter Island!... read more

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago October 6th 2004

And so, South... after the eventful final day in Venezuala, we spent a long day flying south, to Santiago, the capital of Chile. At first impressions, this is a grey, drab city - the weak spring sun fails to penetrate the blanket of smog, and the stern government buildings seem to be straight out of the 70s cold war architecture handbook. It is rather reminiscent of eastern europe, and the cold wind echos this mood. But on second inpection, you see the modern skyscrapers of western banks and mobile phone companies, and the steets buzz with fast food stores and designer clothes shops. The metro, again, is clean, fast, and there is even large plasma screens playing MTV on the platforms... there is also a real bohemian atmosphere to the place.. our hostel is in a ... read more

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago September 7th 2004

Hello! This was our last day in Santiago, we´d had a ball. After a marathon 24 hour, 3 flight journey, we finally arrived in Santiago, very tired and more than a little smelly. We had been very organised and arranged an airport transfer to take us to our hotel, but when we got into the arrivals hall it was nowhere to be seen. There followed a very scary taxi journey to the hotel, where our taxi driver tried to find us an article in the local paper as he drove along the motorway. Quote of the day according to Graeme: Jo: Here, I´ll look for it if you want... Taxi driver: No, no, I good driver lady, don´t you worry. Eeek!! We got there in one (two?) pieces however and all was well. Our hotel turned ... read more
Graeme in Santiago
Just look at those mountains!
The Virgin Mary

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago June 11th 2004

Greetings, Its starting to get really cold here now. Last night it dipped below 0 for the first time. For those I haven´t told, i was in my first earthquake about a month ago. It was a small one, but still kind of neat. A few weekends ago was a long weekend. I went with a group of teachers from one of the schools to a cottage near Lago Vichuquen - about 4 hours south of Santiago. It was a nice relaxing weekend. We had a kick-ass BBQ as you saw from the photos I send a few weeks ago. One night last week I was watching TV and I heard a ton of sirens and a lot of people yelling. I looked out my window to see a riot. The protesters had lit the garbage ... read more
Chilean Soccer Victory Celebration

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago April 26th 2004

Hola Amigos. How are you all doing? As I have mentioned I am working at a private school now. I work as a teachers aid in the English classrooms. I teach all ages from pre-kinder to 12th grade. Its actually a lot of fun. The smaller kids swarm me whenever I walk anywhere. I am hoping this will wear off soon, but its kind of fun. I had one kid in grade 4 asked me if I liked Beaver- when I replied yes, he got all excited and high fived all of his friends. Obviously he knew the second meaning! In another class I had to teach "iny meanie, miney moe, catch a tiger by the toe..." I have no idea why but the kids were thrilled. The teacher only knew the rhyme in Spanish. Its ... read more

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago April 2nd 2004

Friday, 2 April 2004 So this is it, I am finally here. I met some nice guy on the plane to Satiago and he gave me a ride to the city. I didn't know that Santiago is so far away from the acutal airport. The ride in the plane was pretty strange because it was the first time for me to go somewhere without any serious goal. Actually I felt pretty bad and the only thing I could think about was, what the hell am I doing here. Well, on some corner in the city center they let me out and I was on my own. Hit by a humongus jetlack and without any clue what to do, I took off. I checked into a nice Hostal, called Hostal Indiana which was really cool. Little rabbits ... read more
San Christobal
Hostal Indidana
Hostal Indidana Inside

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago January 16th 2004

Hola! Here's my second update. I'll start it off with what everyone calls me... 'Gringo' Gringo means foreigner here in Chile. The word originated in Mexico, meaning Greens go home - green referring to the US Dollar. So basically everyone from Europe or North America is considered a Gringo. Everyone knows I am a gringo as my complexion is very different - not many people have blond hair and blue eyes here, so its a dead giveaway. Last weekend was a lot of fun. Friday night I went over to Pato's friends house (Pato is the 36 year old who lives at my house). There was another Gringo there, so he acted as the translator. After the house party we all went to a Karaoke bar. We got home at 5:30 am! Saturday me and a ... read more

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago January 7th 2004

Hola, I arrived in Santiago 4 days ago. When I got to my host families house I quickly realized that the lady did not speak ANY English. I had no idea what she was saying. Later I found out that they weren't expecting me until the 6th of January! The lady seemed Ok with it though. The house is small, but fairly modern. All the houses are gated and locked. The windows all have bars on them, and every house has a security system. The area I am in (Vitacura) is very nice and appears to be safe. I have been told it is one of the wealthiest communities in Santiago. The language barrier is a problem, but i am finding that my Spanish is quickly improving, and I can now sometimes understand the lady. Its ... read more




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