Santiago, Chile

2009-02-14

We arrived into Santiago a little after 2 pm. We were a bit nervous at the station, as another tour leader had had her bag stolen off her there the week before. We boarded the mini bus to Hotel Rivera without incident. As we were going to be staying there for a while, Ale got us a room with air conditioning on the seventh floor. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the lift (elevator) was out, so Ian graciously carried our big packs up. Lori was feeling a bit run down, so we took it easy that day. We had dinner with the group that night at Patagonia del Sur and as it was Valentine’s Day we splurged; Ian had lamb and Lori had spinach ravioli. It was nice to relax with the group and eat outside, but it did cool off rapidly as the sunset. There were several different musicians that stopped near our table as we ate; ranging from a guy with a keyboard and a pipe blowing to two guys with drums and symbols. We were also surrounded by various dogs. They all seemed friendly until another dog entered their territory and they were barking at it to try and get it to leave.

The park entrance was a neoclassical archway that lead to a staircase that we climbed up to a lookout point.

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2009-02-15

We spent this day in Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. You can read about this in the next journal entry.

2009-02-16-18

Lori was still feeling tired, so we spent the day catching up on admin and relaxing in the room. Ale was around, so Lori asked her to go to the pharmacy to get some medication. Ian also managed to get his Birkenstocks fixed as the sole on one started to separate from the shoe. For lunch, Lori and Ian picked up supplies from the supermarket for sandwiches. Luckily, Lori and Ian went downstairs a little after 5 pm and found that Ale, Hailey, and three of the girls that were joining their tour were off to the movies to see “Valkerie”, so we decided to join them. Lori was pleased to find popcorn at the theatre so Lori tucked into some and Ian had ice cream. Lori enjoyed the movie, but Ian thought it was a bit slow going. It was an interesting story though and we would like to find out how much of a true story it actually was. Afterwards, Ian was still hungry, so we got some food at McDonalds again. A little before 10 pm that night, the group headed off for their night bus. We said our goodbyes to everyone. The next few days were pretty much the same routine as the 16th, to allow Lori to rest up before their next tour. The morning of the 18th was spent going from bank to bank to try and cash the last of our travel’s checks. We eventually got luckily and found that the Banco de Chile on Paseo Ahumada would cash up to $500 a day for free. We were glad that all our effort saved us the normal commission of 2%. We also dropped off our laundry on a place on San Antonio street to get washed. Neither of us were impressed with the job that they did, but at least our clothes smelled clean. On the evening of the 19th, we met our new group. We had discovered by reading our itentary that we would not have a guide for this tour, but would be met at each place by a local representative that would get us to and from a location. Manuel explained that this was correct and gave us an outline of the trip and told us that we would also have to make our way from the Santiago airport to the hotel when we finished the trip. This was not what our itinerary stated, so he told us he would look into it. Carrie and Sean from the UK, Marion and Steve from the US, Brian from the UK and Kit and Jenson (originally from Germany) from Scotland were on our trip. That night, we went to dinner with everyone except Marion and Steve at a nearby café, Patagonia Restobar. It turned out to be quite an adventure as the place only served three dishes, but in the end we managed to make it work for everyone. Unfortunately, Carrie and Sean’s veggie pizza came out with ham and they had to send it back.

2009-02-19

As it was our last day in Santiago and Lori’s energy level seemed better, we decided to explore the city. Santiago was founded in 1541 and was chosen for its moderate climate and location for defense. The nitrate boom in the 1880s caused the city to boom. Of all the capital cities we have visited to date, we found it to be the most modern and where we felt the most relaxed in terms of our safety. The people were also very friendly. We followed the walk in the Lonely Planet book as a guide. Our first stop was the Cerro Santa Lucia park. The park entrance was a neoclassical archway that lead to a staircase that we climbed up to a lookout point. This gave nice views of the city. We walked down a different way and stopped to enjoy a small waterfall and a circular garden. We walked north up Santa Lucia and stopped at another park, Parque Forestal, that had the Palacio de Bellas Artes, 20th century art museum, inside it. Lori stopped to rest, as it was getting warm, while Ian tried to move the traffic to get just the right photo. We stopped for a drink soon afterwards and then continued to Plaza de Armas, the main square. Along the next streets, we saw Ex-Congreso Nacional and Tribunales de Justicia. Finally, we saw Palacio de la Moneda, which is the presidential palace, but was formally a mint. We met the group for dinner that night at 8pm.

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2009-02-20

The independent Patagonia tour began at 8 am, when we were picked up at the hotel and taken to the airport. In order to read the journal in order, continue on to the Puerto Montt and Frutillar, Chile journal.

2009-03-04

When we arrived at the Santiago airport and went to collect our luggage, the flight which we had just got off was not listed on the boards. We asked the LAN representative where to collect our bags from and they told us it would be coming out in the international section and we would have to go to that area. Following a few other people we headed to that section and had to go through security as we had left the baggage area. They let us through the wrong way through customs, but we could not find our bags. It all seemed a little strange as we were now in the customs section of a international flight! We found another LAN representative who told us that our bags were back in the domestic section. As we were now in the international area, security would not let us out without our bags, catch 22, and also without filling in a custom’s form. To escape customs we had to go back to get the LAN representative to explain what had happened. Security finally let us through. We went back to the domestic section and our baggage along with Kit, Jensen, Carrie and Sean were waiting. They were wondering what had happened to us. We explained the story as we headed back to Santiago. The driver who was also there took us back to the Rivera Hotel. We checked back in and got one of the two rooms on the top floor which was massive and had nice views over the park. As Ian and Sean were not feeling great, we went to a quick meal at El Natural, which was not far from the hotel. Kit and Jensen were not staying at the Hotel Rivera, but we planned to meet them later for dinner that night. Ian spent the afternoon tucked up in bed, while Lori did some planning for their US road trip which would start at the end of April. We met up with Carrie and Sean in the lobby for dinner at 8 pm and found out that Kit and Jensen would not be joining them. We hoped to meet up with them again in Buenos Aires. We returned to El Natural for dinner as we had enjoyed the healthiness of the food as lunch time. Lori introduced Carrie to Cuban rice, as she had had this for the first time in Nasca, Peru and really enjoyed it. Carrie liked it as well. We said goodbye to Carrie and Sean after dinner as we would be flying to Buenos Aires early the next morning and Carrie and Sean were heading to Australia the next day. We hope we catch up with them in 2010 when they get back to the UK.

2009-03-05

We had another early start at 6 am. We got breakfast and packed up in time for the taxi at 7 am. We had enjoyed our stay in Santiago and were a bit sad to leave but were looking forward to Buenos Aires. Check in at the airport went smoothly and we had a long wait for our flights. When we boarded we were surprised to see that we got the exit rows with more leg room. Lori napped on and off during the two hour flight. To continue reading the journal in order, continue on to the Buenos Aires journal.