Look THAT up in your atlas! - Chile is Great!

  Antofagasta, Chile
Monday, November 3, 2003

Sun 2nd November Havana (Cuba)-Santiago-Antofagasta (Chile)
Don´t have to check out of room till 2pm, so spend most of morning vegging - reading up on South America, and WRITING up diary after our sad mishap with palm pilot.
It´s raining on and off, and Murray gets caught in it when he goes out for an hour. Check out, pay US$2 to have bags minded for couple of hours, and walk round town for last time, and have lunch. Back at 4pm to pick up bags and get US$15 LADA taxi to airport.
As we´ve stated before, everyone is desperate for US dollars, and one way they reckon they can get some more is by cheating on your restaurant and supermarket bills - not occasionally, but almost EVERY time.
Various examples we have personally encountered:
1. just add $2 extra to bottom of bill - taken off when queried
2. when there is a 5% service charge on the bill, and it takes it up to just under $8, pretend it took it to just over $8, that way you have to pay an extra dollar (because the change you get in pesos is worthless)
3. add up the bill incorrectly
4. having been caught in a supermarket previously, we are more careful, and buy drinks for $1.85, and then buy some chewing gum for 15c - told bill is $3 - drinks have to go through one cashier, for $2, and chewing gum through another - although 15c, as no change, have to pay $1..
Summary of our thoughts on Cuba
Found Havana very interesting - lots of lovely old buildings, and the vintage motor cars have to be seen to be believed. Getting an inside look at the old buildings that have had no repairs for 40 years was a real eye-opener, and seeing how the system works (or doesn´t, as the case may be, was interesting). However we certainly didn´t think it lived up to many people´s ecstatic descriptions. They had some nice beaches (so have lots of places), mediocre snorkelling, lots of very flat land, some nice karst scenery (but nothing like Vang Vieng in Laos or Yangshuo in China), good music but nothing like the spirit of Brazil. If we´d had more Spanish, perhaps we would have been able to talk in depth with the people to understand better what was really going on in the country.
Also found the pursuit of the US dollar by everyone, including the Government, was a bit off-putting.
We´re pleased to be leaving Cuba - we´ve spent longer than we needed, but our flight was only once a week, so couldn´t leave earlier.
Our flight leaves at 8pm (US$25 each departure tax). Dianne takes the remaining sleeping tablet, and manages to get some sleep, but both are awake a lot of the night.

Monday 3rd November Santiago-Antofagasta (Chile)
Dianne´s 53rd birthday!
Get into Santiago about 6am (4am Cuba time as there is a 2-hour time change). Have to get our bags and go through international customs, and pay US$30 each airport tax. Worried we´ll miss our connection,as this puts us at the end of the queue, but this is not Heathrow, and everything goes smoothly, and we catch our 7.50am Antofagasta (just love writing that name!) flight with no problems. For some reason our seats are not together -Dianne gets a window seat on the right-hand side, and Murray gets the middle seat of three on the left-hand side of the plane. Almost immediately Dianne has fantastic mountains, with the top covered in snow, on her side. Continue almost the whole trip (lots of photos). Coming into Antofagasta, get a great view of the heavily indented cliffs and rough sea around them. There are airport shuttles (for US$2 each) so get one. Get the immediate impression this is a mining town, with all the roadside signs advertising various types of trucks and heavy machinery! Most of the people on the shuttle are workers, and we drop people off at various industrial places (must have escaped for the weekend). At this stage the town doesn´t look too promising. Antofagasta is the largest city in Northern Chile, and is a major port for the export of copper from La Escondida and Chuquicamata. It is also a major commercial centre and home of two universities. It has a dramatic setting -beside the ocean, with tall, stark, dry, bare mountains on the other side, with houses built part-way up the side of the mountains.


We get dropped off at the Dakota Hotel (not many stars, if any). Drop our gear off, and out to investigate. First to internet cafe, to see how much of the lost diary is on our expansion card (luckily most of it was). Upload to travelpod, then out to get some local currency. First machine, using Murray´s Homeside card, won´t give us any money, which is worrying, so try second machine, for a small amount, using Dianne´s card, which is OK. Check out Plaza Colon, which is quite nice. The centre of town is definitely nicer than you´d think when you first arrived. Up for a McDonalds meal (after all our chicken meals, starting to appreciate a McDonald´s hamburger).
Back to room for a short rest, then down to the waterfront. Hard to get to the actual water, as various places ( a yacht club, a hotel) have it fenced off with their own private beaches. There are a couple of long wooden wharves in VERY bad repair. Finally find somewhere to feel the water temperature (not as cold as we expected - definitely invigorating, but not freezing). Walk round to look at the fishing boats, when we see something bobbing in the water. Turns out to be three, as yet unidentifed, animals (not sure whether were enormous seals, or walruses). When we go to take a photo, find our camera battery is flat, so go back to room (a long walk), and get new battery. Decide to go back to photograph them. When we do, have the bonus of a couple of turtles swimming around as well. Already we´re loving Chile. There is a new, unexpected surprise around every corner, something which was definitely missing in Cuba.
Decide to walk part-way up the hill to get a better view. Quite steep, and standard of housing deteriorates, but feels pretty safe. Take photos, then back down to look for a supermarket shown in our guidebook. When finally find it, think we are dreaming! It´s a hypermarket, and has the most incredible range of food. Would have been surprised to have had so much variety in Santiago, much less up here (over 1000 kms north). Walk around drooling (we´re used to the half-dozen items, in total, in Cuban shops, whereas here they have a half-dozen different varieties for each product). We´re impressed with the grog department. They have bottles (and cartons) of wine, not to mention bottles of Pisco sour, for US$1 - think we´re going to enjoy Chile! Buy some supplies, including a bottle of Pisco sour, and back to room to try it out. Getting drunk here is going to be very easy - have half bottle between us, and already we´re half pickled. Out later for dinner - look at various places, but decide it´s all too hard, so go to McDonalds for our second hamburger of the day. Back to room. Walking 14kms