Chile

After a crazy long walk in the city we tried to have an early night as we wanted to go to
Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar the next day, we still ended up eating at 12.30 ish in the
morning and went to bed at 1.30 am.

The next day we were supposed to leave the hostel at about 7.30 am but as all of us were so
tired from the early night had yesterday,we left at 9ish. Like Anto mentioned before the city didnt look busy at all,which wassurprising.

Anyway we got to the train station and our poor unpaid bilingual translator Ivan asked for the
right tickets. We had to get to this train station to catch our bus to Valparaiso which was
a just under 2 hours journey. All of us slept like babies the whole way. Oh no I almost forgot to mention,
on our way there were these massive billboards of lingerie models in the middle of massive
mountains which was wierd and both Ivan and Anto had not really got any talent in Santiago
city, were trying to take shots of these indiviual models but, were missing it by that much! (my get smart comment). In the end, there was a massive billboard with all 3 and My Gosh it was amazing the way their eyes caught it from far and both were ready to click the shot.Both were half dead before this.

Moving on, we got to Valparaiso, and as we got off the bus, there was this promotion girl for a
tourism company trying to get us to buy this traip around Valparaiso. Anth and I got out of
the bus first and we didnt really fall for it, yes not even Anth. But then Ivan was the poor
victim and got dragged to the office and had to listen to the offer.

Anyway after wasting about 10 mins there, we were on our way to the Port where we were
expecting to see some Naval ships and were werent disappointed. We had
lunch at this place which was literally on the port. Both boys who werent into Steaks all this time, had
fish with me. This was first great meal in Chile. And of course there had to be Pisco Soursto go with it.
I got a Mango Sour as Piscos were a bit too strong for me.
After a great lunch we started walking into these small streets through this hill and
then hopped on a tram looking service to go to the top of this hill (not sure if this hill hás a name). Once we got to there, we walked around in the market full of souveniers. Walking down the streets of this hill was so
amazing, just the different colours on the houses and the paintings on the walls was breath taking.

After we got off the hill we made our way to Vina Del Mar via train where the beaches were. I loved the train ride on the way it was just on the coastline so the view was just great. After we got off the station we walked for about 15-20 minutes to make our way to the beach. We expected a bit of crowd as it was pretty warmish day. But to our surprise the beach was absolutely packed. The boys didnt know what to do and where to look. I thought melbourne´s water is cold to get in, the water here so cold that I had a brain freeze as it touched my toes. Ivan and I werent feeling that well so we decided not to go in. Anto was pretty excited to get into the water but backed off aswell. Saying that even if the water was tôo cold for us to get in, the beach was pretty scenic.

We then took a walk on the beach to see what was going on.There was nothing really appealing, 3 days, 3 different spots of Chile and the story was the same, the guys were pretty disappointing,hope its gets better in Argentina and Brazil. As far as the hunka meter góes Chile got a 4.5/10 (massive disappointment).

Anyway we left the beach were on and we were getting on the other side of Vina De Mar, a beach that Ivan´s friend hád suggessted to visit. By now we had already walked for about 3 hours.We did see some good spots and took photos on our way to the other beachv,dont really have specific names for these places. Although, one good spot was this castle looking building called Wulff Castle. Its a museum, hás a collection of items reflecting the history of Vina. We also saw some expensive homes on the coasts of Vina.

It hád got very hot and late by the time we reached this other beach Playa Acapulco. There were some crazy apartment buildings which would have a great view of this beach.

We decided to leave soonish, all of us were pretty tired and had to get to the bus station to get back to Santiago.
I actually didnt realise how long of a walk it was going to be, to get to the bus station. I was told its not too far.
I was not happy. We must have walked atleast 2 hours. As I was getting really bitchy about the long walk, Anto tried to trick me into looking that these clothes from a distance said we can take a bit of a breather in there.As we got closer we realise that it was an international market with things from all over South América and a bit from Carribbean. It was a good experince. After the breather we walked and walked and walked again. As we were getting closer to the bus stop Ivan decided to buy a Empanada. Anto and I thought, once we would get to Santiago we would have dinner so didnt get anything. But as we got into the bus we got so hungry, had to stare at Ivan and his Empanada till we fell asleep.

The bus ride was pretty smooth got to Sanitago at about 10.30 ish and took connecting train to take us to our Hostel. By this time it was pretty late but we decided to have bite so we ended sharing a savoury and desert crepe. It was Ivan´s turn to stare.

All in all we had a great day trip to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar and looking forward to this scenic bus ride to Mendoza,Argentina tommorrow. All the best to Ivan, our first new friend in South América, who was leaving for Colômbia the next day.

Good Nite !!

Day two in santiago began with a familiar situation to home, me going out for a morning run and Harsh sleeping in. Not surprisingly the city was like a ghost town at 8.30 am, must be all that mid week partying.

After a mediocre breakfast, buns and blueberry jam, myself, Harsh and our new columbian friend Ivan decided to venture into the city of santiago on foot armed with a map and the lonelyplanet. We had in mind seeing the various plaza´s finding the central market which was highly recommended by a friend of Ivan´s and another local lady who scammed me for 350 pesos the day before. Okay doen´t be distressed that´s the equivalent of $1aud.

Well I must say we were impressed with the Plaza de Armas and Santiago´s infrustructure. The highlights were climbing Santa lucia hill in the middle of the city and seeing the city in panarama and a snow capped mountain, also stumbling on Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. Harsh rates this as the best church she has ever seen, I tend to agree with her it was majestic and showed off all the wealth of the church with elaborate architecture and art work. Yes I admit it was even more impressive than St Mary´s Bambalapitiya, only just.

Well all the sight seeing was making us hungry so off we went in search of the central market. Walking, walking walking, there it was finally in a dodgey area of town. Not a sign of a single gringo, at last we thought we were going to sample some latin american delicousies. However much to our dismay the market was nothing more than a much dirty version of Vicmarket minus any cooked food. Yes only produce, scammed again. Damn our stomachs were by now screaming, however Shetty was suprisingly subdued and well behaved, must have been due to the presence of Ivan the columbian casanova. We eventually settle for a small cafe near bellavista, nothing special, dodgy salmon and average Lomo(steak) but the cafe was responsible for giving us our first taste of Pisco sour. I can feel the heart burn just writing about it. In fact Pisco sour was the hit of the day and night, my self and harsh polished of a few more in the evening although it was much harder to order without the assistance of Ivan´s spanish who had slept in from 5pm till 11.
Never the the less the both of us along with the lonely planet phrasebook had a great night in our new spot bellavista amidst the Fireeaters, Drummers and one man band. Well we better go to bed now we have an early start tommorrow... a trip to Vina delmar and valporiso.

PS there will be alot of spelling mistakes in this as my Word spell check only checks for spanish.

Ok so after a great experience in the Auckland airport we started our journey to Santiago at 5.30pm yesterday. It was a pretty long flight, with semi-descent food. Both Anto and I couldnt really sleep that well so we ended up watching 3 movies. In the morning we listened to some latin american music to get us in the mood of South America.

We landed in Santiago international airport at around 1.15pm today. Knowing my luck I was a bit anxious, walking towards the immigration to get my arrival stamp. But this time everything went smoothly. Got out pretty quickly.This time Anto took longer than I did.

With the help of our latin american phrase book Anto organised transport for us to get our hostel with a non english speaking lady at the counter.

After getting dropped at the hostel when we went to check in, the sweet lady offered us a room that had a private bathroom but asked us to checkin a little later as our room wasnt ready.We went for a walk around the block and decided to have lunch at this little place near our hostel.

The food wasnt great but the service from our waiter Alberto was great.He also directed Anto to a gym which was next door as Anto has to continue to be Ripped for Rio.

After lunch we went to buy some things that we need from a little convenience store, the phrase book came in handy here. Anto did go a bit far by trying to look for the right pronunciation for ´banana´ which was ´banana´.

We then went to this gym suggessted by Alberto to see the pricing and the availabilty, etc. The $20.00 phrasebook was useless at the gym, as it didnt have the questions we wanted to ask and when did ask the questions we didnt understand the responses from the lady.I have seen foreigners bargaining in Colaba, Mumbai by writing and communicating with sellers, I used think that it was so funny. I was doing the same thing today, it was an experience.I hope I will get better at communicating like that as we progress through the trip.

We took a nap and Anto went to the gym after. He enjoyed it.I wanted to go but was too tired.

I had great nap and when Anto came back we went out for dinner. On our way out of Bellavista we met this guy Ivan from Colombia. He was in our flight aswell. He was living in Australia for the last 11 months. 3 of us went out for dinner and had empanada which is a pastry stuffed with meat.
We were pretty surprised by the number of people were out on a tuesday night. And a lot of them didnt seem to be tourists. The street we were on felt like we were on Chapel Street on a thursday night.Bellavista definitely has a pulse.
Thanks to Wesley for the recommendation.

Buenos noches !!