The Lynx Effect......(And a Looney Tune!)

Now if 2 Chinese girls drew attention in Santiago then can you imagine the amount of attention an Irish girl and a Chinese girl together would receive. Annie with her snow white skin and red hair (although now more of a dark strawberry blonde colour after 16 weeks of sun in Australia and NZ) and me, still obviously Chinese (!) although alittle darker than on my first visit back in December! (Thank god, I hadn´t come out to Santiago straight from the UK....I would have been just as snow white as Annie and I think the attention we would have received would have been off the scale!!!)

And to receive so much attention, it was absolutely hilarious! Now Santiago is a relatively safe place although you still have to be aware of pickpockets and dodgy areas in which you shouldn´t walk late at night. And this was advised to us by our lovely receptionists at the Andes Hostel. Bless them, I know that they were looking out for us but the way they advised us not to walk over to Bellavista one night...well, it had me and Annie almost in stitches. Basically, one of the guys told us that we should take a cab over to Bellavista and not walk as it was alittle unsafe especially since we didn´t look typically "Chilean"! Annie and I thought this was hilarious as he was so stating the obvious! Annie and I looked as Chilean as night looked like day!!!!! I remember when he said that, Annie and I just looked at each other and tried so hard not to laugh! Bless him!

Oh and the attention that we did get! Well, excluding all the "holas" that were yelled at us on the streets or the glances in queues at the post office and the supermarket or the curious stares by children.....let´s just say we had some memorable moments!

One in particular was at one of the fast food eateries...I think Don Pepe was the name.....Annie and I walked in and were pondering at the overhead boards making head nor tail of the promotion menus when 3 or 4 of the male workers rushed over to help us! It was hilarious watching them scramble over themselves behind the counter bending over backwards to help Annie with what to choose, how to order and where to get her food!!!!! Annie was so overwhelmed with the help she was getting that I think it confused her even more with what to do or what to choose!!!!! Then after we had eaten and walked back downstairs, the same 3-4 workers scrambled over themselves again to say goodbye to us!!!!! Haha!!!

Another memorable moment was one night out in Bellavista. Now Bellavista is known as the bohemian part of Santiago.....quiet by day but when the sun sets....the place comes alive with all the bars and restaurants with both locals and tourists/travellers alike....in particular Patio Bellavista...which is this little plaza where little stores and markets are opened during the day but at night opens out into great little candlelit bars and restaurants. Now even on walking from the cab down Pio Nono (which we were warned to be alittle unsafe although this is just because it is more popular with the locals so there arent many tourists there) to Patio Bellavista, Annie was greeted with a couple of yells of "I love you Blondie" and "you have beautiful eyes" but it was really when we were drinking our ridiculously strong raspberry daiquiris and mojitos (oh my, I had one raspberry daiquiri and was slightly light in the head....and this was after mixing a whole can of sprite into it as it was so so so utterly strong!!!!), one of the guys on the next table came over and without saying a word dropped a piece of paper next to my drink then walked back to his table. Wierd, I thought and as I looked down, awwww, he had drawn me a picture of a guy holding a flower!!!!

Haha...seriously, stuff like that has never ever and would never ever happen to me back at home!!!! I was quite chuffed although if I´m being honest, it wasn´t the best of all drawings! Now, our waitress who must have seen all this, immediately came over and started saying something in spanish. We both looked at her totally confused and went "Lo siento, no entiendo" which is "Sorry, we don´t understand!". So she went "espera un momento" (which is "wait a moment") and walked into the bar. A minute later, she came back with another of the waiters who in English went to us "those guys over there, they are not a problem for you?" Aww, bless him! "No, no we said, as long as they don´t come and hassle us, we are fine". "Well, let me know, if they cause you any problems". Aww, bless his little cotton socks! He was looking out for us!!!!

Now, the guys didn´t cause us any problems at all. As nice as it was to have someone give me a drawing, we didn´t want to give them the wrong impression so it was only when they got up to leave that I looked over to thank the guy for his pitcure to which he walked over to talk to us. Bless the waiter because as soon as he saw this, he came over and sort of hovered close by to our table! But the guy after realising that Annie and I were not prepared to give over any details as to our numbers or emails, politely said goodbye and walked back to his friends. (Oh after a friendly Chilean peck on the cheek that is!) So that was that. He wasn´t dodgy but Annie and I were perfectly happy having drinks by ourselves although we did say that if  we thought any guy was dodgy then we would give them our alias names.......haha...Annie would be Dawn and me Jennifer....French and Saunders anyone!!!!

Haha.....in fact, despite being advised that Santiago could be slightly unsafe for tourists, with all the attention we received, Annie and I felt like the safest people there. How could we not?!! We constantly had 30 pairs of eyes on us! It was like having our own personal bodyguards watching us at all times!!!! Pickpockets or muggers would be silly to aim for us with everyone watching our every move!

And that is why this blog entry is called the "Lynx Effect". After having dinner in one of those lovely budget restaurants by the Plaza de Armas one evening and being greeted with numerous "holas" from truck drivers, road workers, delivery men etc....I was like " Annie, we really should count the number of times, we get a hello here!" to which Annie was like "yeah, you would never get this at home, it´s like the Lynx adverts...we really should get one of those clickers"!!!!!!

And this time around, I ended up seeing alot more of Santiago than the inside of a bar and club (a la my first visit!). We participated in a free walking tour which was an first time experiment carried out by an engineer who wanted to eventually get into tourism and this was so informative. Unfortunately, no one else from the other hostels he had advertised in decided to get up for the early (by S. American standards!) 9:30am start on the Saturday so Annie and I basically had a personal tour of the city which for us was great! It was so good being shown the various spectacular buildings dotted around the city centre and being told of their history and importance at the same time......San Francisco Church, Cerro Santa Lucia, Palacio de la Moneda, the Santiago equivalent of Wall Street etc. And when we reached the Presidential Office, we even managed to watch the changing of the guards which only happens every two days!

The walking tour ended at Mercado Central.....a food market specialisng in fresh fish.....and fruit and veg...within this very European looking building. In fact, it used to be Britain´s very own Birmingham train station.....moved part by part from Birmingham all the way to Santiago Chile! The waiters at the numerous fish restaurants in the market were very persuasive indeed so obviously lunch was spent there although my sea bass wasn´t that nice and to be honest, I wasn´t even really sure that it was in fact sea bass!

I enjoyed Santiago the place itself alot more this time....I think I felt alot more comfortable second time around after having spent a month and a half in South America.....the language barrier no longer seemed so daunting especially now I had picked up a little spanish ("un pocito")....and although Argentinians are still slightly more friendlier, Chileans were awfully helpful with us. Between Annie and I, our two phrasebooks and our game of chirades, we managed to send registered mail to Ireland at the post office, get sim cards and credit for our phones, buy anti malarial tablets at the pharmacy (without a necessary doctor´s prescription may I add which is rather frightening as we did wonder what else the pharmacist would have sold us had we asked!), get on the metro (so cheap 380 pesos GBP 40p compared to our silly prices for the tube at home!) and even ask for rates and classes at the local gym!!!!

Most locals also really looked out for us......a gent at the bank reminded us to be careful and keep our bags at the front....and when I got my photos put onto dvd (for the second time may I add as the first internet screwed up my card and lost some of my photos....the really picturesque ones of Bariloche for which I am really upset but I guess losing 50 photos out of the 10,000 that I´ve taken on this whole trip makes it sound far less horendous!), they did it for me even though the shop was shutting and they had to stay an extra hour for me as my silly card took so long....and then the guy walked me out the back way as the front was locked all the way through the mall back out on to the main street!

Unfortunately though, you do get the odd ones who try and take advantage of us tourists. Like one night at about 1:30am, Annie and I took a taxi back from Bellavista. We knew that the fare should only be between 1200 and 2000 pesos and the meter was at 1,000 just round the corner before our hostel. THen it suddenly jumped to 2,500 pesos! We were not impressed as the taxi driver was obviously ripping us off so Annie told him. Suddenly, he went from speaking good English to us to "no entiendo!" and said he was a special taxi! Special my arse!!!! We gave him 2,000 and got out the taxi! Looking back, we shouldn´t even have given him that! But apparently, taxi drivers rip off everyone even the locals as one of our receptionists explained to us when we told him back at the hostel. A taxi driver tried to overcharge him recently too and our receptionist is a local Chilean knowing Santiago like the back of his hand!!!! So he just got out the taxi and walked off!

Now Chile is definitely more expensive than Argentina but we still managed to find some really great cheap eats....particularly the fast food eateries and little restaurants around the Plaza de Armas. Now I mentioned Don Pepe before....well, this was a fast food chain specialising in hot dogs (completo with the vivid red salsa and fluorescent yellow cheese sauce or Italiano with the bright green "um I think" guacamole and the pale yellow "have no idea what maybe" mayo!) but had all sorts including pork and steak sandwiches all ridiculously cheap and easy (surprisingly!) on the stomach! My completo hotdog and bottle of coke was 790 pesos...that´s 80p!!!! The little restaurants were also great....pork chops and rice for 2650 pesos...GBP 2.65!!!! And empanadas!!!! Still not yet had enough of them surprisingly!

And Andes is still the best hostel ever! And before you ask...yes, my cutie receptionist was still there....haha....Alex is his name! And yes, he still winks which leaves me weak at the knees! Oh I tell you, this guy is so lovely! One evening, we arrived back at our dorm to find that the fuse had blown and we had no lights or electricity. So Annie ran downstairs to tell the receptionist who said that he would come up and take a look. We waited and after five minutes heard someone coming up the stairs......Alex came into view (he was taking over the reception for the night shift.....and oh what a heavenly sight it was! He was wearing a black vest tank top which showed off his defined and rather buff arms and black shorts like he had just come back from the gym after a shower! Haha....I couldn´t help it...my face just broke into this huge grin and I just had to turn around and walk back into the dorm mouthing to Annie "oh my god"! Annie was in stitches as I wobbled back to the room holding onto the wall as my knees had gone to jelly! And no, that is not the reason why Andes is the best hostel ever and Annie can vouch for that. The place is central, very clean and most importantly very safe and secure! Laa laa laa!

But there was one thing that did ruin our stay at Andes Hostel and that was the fact that we had to change rooms on our last night. Now, it wasn´t the changing of rooms that was the problem, it was the fact that we had to dorm with a Brazilian girl who was an absolute looney tune!!!! Seriously, she was crazy! First of all, she spent most of the night sleeping downstairs on the sofa in the common room not in the most ladylike manner.....short shorts or skirt and legs, um, not quite so ladylike and she kept on mumbling. Then she didn´t come into the dorm room until about 3am in the morning and made the most horrendous racket.....she dropped her phone, swore loads, rummaged around with plastic bags and kept on mumbling to herself! At one point, Annie even text me even though she was only in the bunk above me saying that she was worried about falling asleep in case the girl did something to us while we slept! Then the girl went out the room and me and Annie both leaned over the bunks to speak to each other about her! But even that wasn´t the worse part. The worse part was when we awoke later on in the early hours of the morning to a cat screaming....well, once my sleepy head woke up alittle more, I realised that it wasn´t actually a cat but the girl singing out on our room balcony!!! Yes, at like 4am in the morning! How wacky and blooming inconsiderate!!!! I was getting slightly p1ssed off now at this stage but was worried that if I said anything that she would come at me so I just got up and went to the toilet. I think she got the message as she had stopped singing by the time I got back and after about 10 mins came back into the room and went to bed. When we finally thought that we had had enough drama for the night and I finally fell back asleep, we were again woken up to her sobbing in bed!!!!! Loud sobbing and then she sobbed all the way out of the room!!! OH MY GOD!!!!

By the time I got up at 7:30am, crazy girl was back in bed but as soon but as soon as I gathered my stuff for the shower and was about to walk out the door, she called out to me! "Do you want some soup?" Not happy that I had had one of the worse nights of my life, I was like "no, thank you, I would not like some soup". "Oh soap", she said. "No, thank you, I would not like some soap either" and walked out. Apparently, she then started to talk to Annie, asking her if she had a problem. Annie, annoyed but still worried that this girl was completely off her trolley, just said firmly that she didn´t have a problem and ignored her!!!

But that wasn´t even the end of it. When I came back from my shower, crazy girl had gone for a walk but she returned just before Annie and I left for town for all our last minute chores. And this was the conversation, she had with me...

Crazy girl: Where are you from?

Me (trying to do my stuff and hoping she would get the message and stop talking to me): England

Crazy girl: Oh, my aunt went to England.....but she died recently.

Me (not sure what to say):Um, sorry to hear that...

Crazy girl: She´s in a better place..

Me (not knowing completely what to say):um...

Crazy girl: Away from this hell that we call life.....

Then as I struggled to come up with something, she got up and went to light incense on our balcony!!! OH MY GOD!!!!! Yes, incense in our room!!! To which me and Annie legged it and thank god, we never saw her again before we left!!!!

Funny thing was there was another guy in our room and he must have been used to her behaviour as he just acted like nothing wrong!!!!!! Men!!!!! They just dont care and sleep through anything!!!!

Oh and talking about men.....seriously, what is with older men and little red underpants???!! Anyone care to enlighten me? On one of our nights in our dorm, we shared with this older and rather tall and largely built Swiss guy. Since Annie and I had claimed both the lower bunk beds, this guy had to choose an upper bunk and of course, he choose the bunk over me. Now I´m usually absolutely fine with someone in the bunk above me but although these were ridiculously strong wooden bunks, I was terrified that he would collapse on top of me!!!! He was big man and he really didn´t know how to get up to the top bunk in the most delicate fashion. Oh my god, as he wobbled up the ladder at the end of my bunk, I thought there was a ricter 7 earthquake in santiago and everytime he tossed and turned in bed, I was worried the wooden boards on the bottom of his bunk would snap and he would flatten me like a pancake! But what was even worse was the next morning when he got out of bed, instead of using the ladder, he decided to jump off and these are high upper bunks! First, my whole world in my lower bunk shook like crazy then I saw a pair of hairy legs swing down to the side above me and then "BOOM" as he propelled himself off his upper bunk and crashed onto the wooden floor!!! I was surprised he didn´t fall through the floor on his landing like that in the movies as he steadied himself up. Then later, after breakfast, we came back to find him still in bed and EUGH, EUGH, EUGH!!!! What a horrendous sight! His covers were partly off and all I could see was what looked like a beach whale and then this bright red thing which was his teeny weeny underpants!!!!! I sat down on the edge of my bunk to steady myself and try to erase this traumatic image from my head when suddenly....whoosh....came his hairy legs swinging down the edge of my bed about 2 inches from my face!!!!! "WHOAAAA!!" I yelled..."CAREFUL"!!!! And I just managed to scoot backwards into my bunk as he propelled himself off again!!!! Geez! The last thing I wanted on this trip was for a large sweaty man in teeny weeny red pants to fall on top of me and crush me!!!!!

(By the way, maybe I should have started this blog entry by explaining why I was backtracking and visiting Santiago again! Well, Annie wanted to see Santiago and seeing that I didnt really see much of it the first time around and I wanted to go to Valparaiso and also to San Pedro de Atacama in Northern Chile......I thought, why the hell not just go back and then try to get into Bolivia from Northern Chile......so tah dah......back in Santiago!!!!)