Santiago Hotels
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Santiago... while I was trying to get to Mendoza??
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After 36h of bus, going from Iguazu Falls to Mendoza, I eventually arrived in Mendoza around 10pm. On my way, I called 6 hostels to find out that none of them had any vacancy. As they were the most popular one, I did not worry too much and set up to find one once at destination. Oh yeah, before leaving Iguazu, I checked online for hostels, but none had vacancy either (which does not mean much as they seem to rarely have vacancy online in Argentina). So much to be done here for the online travel market... but that's another story. It happened to me often that once at the bus station, random people come to advertise their hostel and this is how I decided I would find my hostel tonightJ . Nobody showed up at the bus station, so I went to the tourist info. They were not really helpful and as they were 30 minutes away from the end of their shift, they could not care less about me. So I found a travel agency at the bus station specialized in Mendoza's accommodation. Perfect! The girl was real cute as well! Even better! But she told me that all of their hostels/hotels/cabana/motels were sold out! So she suggested I go back to the tourist info and ask them for their list of hotels with phone numbers. After arguing a few moments with the girls at the tourist info, she remembered she had such a list and I then started my calls...
I called exactly 60 places (to make it round), even the Hyatt Regency at $500/night (just for the kick). Nothing was available. After thinking it was a global joke on me or that I was filmed, I then asked random people what was going on here. Was it the Olympics or the World Cup? They assured me it was not but that it was Easter! Easter!! Sort of forgot about that. I knew it was the Spring Equinox however. I have never come across such a situation! So I went back to the cute girl for a last chance. I even asked her if I could sleep on her couch. She smiled but declined my offer... no luck. All this time, my frame of mind was quite positive as events where happening a bit how they happen in a movie... I felt completely detached and found the situation really absurd and funny... in a way. The cute girl did told me however not to venture walking out of the bust station at night and especially not to sleep at the bust station, for I was pretty sure to get robbed. Nice, in my mind, Mendoza was a nice quiet city where people come to drink wine!
So I took my bags and start walking around in the bus station thinking that a solution would present itself. Then a women who was on my previous bus asked me if I was ok. I told her my story and asked her what she was waiting for at the bus station. She told me she was going to Santiago de Chile in 20 minutes. Here was my answer. Although I did not want to go there, I bought a bus ticket and hop on. After all, this would save me a hostel and I just hoped that it would not be the same situation in Santiago. The bus lady even gave me the name of a hostel I could stay and 6h later, at 5am, I was in Santiago de Chile. I found the hostel and went to bed finally, after 44h of traveling, 16 movies (most of them with loads of guns), a bit of food, not so much sleep, few more stamps on my passport and the mind wide open to what and why I ended up where I did not want to be in the first place. Part of me felt disappointed at my travel planner skills but with retrospective, something outside of myself lead me here. That night, I had an amazing lucid dream like the ones I use to have in Guatemala... the mystery was starting to unfold.
All the love in my heart
Erriuc
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| 71. | Santiago... while I was trying to get to Mendoza?? - Santiago, Chile Mar 22, 2008 (  48 ) |
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