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My flight from Auckland to Santiago was the fourth of five journeys included in my round-the-world ticket, the only remaining item on the itinerary being my flight home from New York late this year. The prospect of exploring a couple of huge continents in the interim was exciting and made my experiences in South East Asia and New Zealand seem like short holidays in comparison. The flight involved crossing the International Date Line, meaning we actually landed four hours before taking off! It occurred to me this was as close as I'd get to "having my time again" - an ideal opportunity try to be a better person, or rob a bank, as I could clearly prove I was in New Zealand at the time!
Tired from my longest flight to date and perhaps a little too trusting after two months in New Zealand, I fell for the well-rehearsed taxi scam of confusing new arrivals with the currency. The quoted fare of "twenty-five Dollars" turned out to be twenty-five thousand pesos (around 50 US Dollars) - about double what it should have been, given what I paid on my return to the airport. It took a while to get used
Santiago - river and Gran Torre
The river is more of a trickle at this time of year to paying prices in the thousands, but when I did, it became apparent I could live on much less than in New Zealand, which was welcome.
Santiago appeared to be a prosperous city, with plenty of new skyscrapers and a clean and efficient underground metro system. The city centre was pleasant without being particularly attractive, and tourists were certainly a small minority, and since I clearly wasn't local, plenty of stares were cast in my direction. I also explored Barrio Brazil to the west, which had a number of trendy bars, and upmarket Providencia to the east, and climbed a hill just north of the centre, which gave me an excellent view of the tips of the Andes, the smog, and the city below.
Without much knowledge of Spanish (aside from how to order a beer, thanks to previous holidays in Spain), I encountered a significant language barrier for the first time on my trip (in South East Asia I never really strayed far enough from the beaten track for there to be an issue). I generally stuck to eating in places with pictorial menus, or else went for pot luck. While this was frustrating, I was enjoying
the challenge of learning a new language and the feeling of being understood, even at my very basic level. This made carrying out normally mundane tasks highly rewarding. For example, I was particularly pleased with myself when I managed to purchase return bus ticket to the coastal city Valparaiso, and then a train up the coast to Viña del Mar, making it back to Santiago in the evening. "Valpo" is very rustic with different coloured buildings rising into the hillside, whereas Viña was more like a holiday resort with high-rise hotels and a beach.
Being in Santiago gave me a great opportunity to see Reynaldo, who I
met in Singapore back in February. We met up on a couple of evenings where I sampled the freshest Chilean Schopp beer and picked up as much Spanish as I could. Before we met, Reynaldo had travelled to New Zealand with little knowledge of English and is now fluent, which gave me some encouragement.
My final day in Santiago was the most eventful, as Reynaldo invited me to go trekking with him and his nephew. I awoke with a slight feeling of unease in my stomach but pressed on regardless, taking the subway
In Santiago with Reynaldo
Shortly after throwing up to the east of the city, where I met Reynaldo. We walked to his sister's apartment to pick up his nephew, where I rapidly discharged my undigested breakfast into the toilet. This finally convinced me I was not in an ideal state to go trekking, so I took the subway back, but had to bail out two stations early and test out a couple of the Spanish phrases I'd learnt on the station guard: "¡Estoy enfermo! ¡Necesito un baño!". Thankfully they worked, and when I felt better, I set off walking back to the hostel, stopping on the way - first at the toilet of a helpful cafe owner, and second at a park with a secluded area of trees. I spent most of the afternoon in bed, dragging myself up on occasions, for example, when one of my fellow guests was cooking a particularly aromatic Bolognese.
This was my first food poisoning of the trip, having made it through South East Asia unscathed and was likely due to a dodgy hamburger I ate the previous night. I knew in time I would get better, the trouble was, I had a flight to Buenos Aires at half-past six in
the evening. I stayed in bed as long as possible, took a couple of Imodiums, packed as best I could and made it to the airport just in time. There were a couple of bad moments on the aeroplane but thankfully, I somehow made it without any incidents!
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Lynn
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Great to hear from you.
Keep the blogs and pictures coming - certainly an eventful episode. You've done well to get so far before getting sick!