Touchdown Latin America
Trip Start
Mar 01, 2006
1
250
551
Trip End
Dec 01, 2007
Loading Map
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
Santiago,
Chile
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
___________________________
Martha and Roger, the camping owners, took two loads of travellers to the airport: the pickup was filled up with backpacks and 8 or 9 people each time, as there were 15 of us leaving on the same plane... The camping must have been empty then!
It was a five hours flight, where I was happy to take the opportunity to watch movies, as I usually have no time for that. Except that the sound and image were not synchronised, it was shit!
I could have started to wonder where I was going to stay in Santiago, but Richard and Fiona, an English couple I had met at the campin on Isla de Pascua, were on the same flight as me and I could just follow them to a nice place they knew. That's just what I did, after saying goodbye to the chilean-belgian couple who was also with us (might visit them later in Santiago). In the bus we found ourselves with a german couple who was also at the camping, as they were also going to the same pension as us!
Santiago was a big change, and first by the architecture: big buildings, large avenues, but everything very much more european than in Oceania. Lots of trees, stone buildings, looks like a real city. It was the summer hollidays, so everything is hot and quiet. Students are hanging out outside of the many private universities, trying to make up their mind as to what they should do with their lives. A few kids a playing in the streets, but many people have gone to the seaside: Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are just an hour drive from Santiago.
Street vendors sell food at every corner. The streets are neat but not totally clean. Well built but sometimes there is a hole in the ground or in a wooden palissade. Everything is modern but the butcher store is not a totally reassuring place to me. There are both markets and supermarkets, as well as small shops selling fruits and vegetables, or beverages. The fruits and vegetables are good, especially the avocados.
All that is a bit confusing. I feel a bit like at home here, maybe since my short stay in Mexico that I really liked. I guess I have to give it more thoughts to describe how it is.
I made the decision to not really visit Santiago this time, instead concentrating on my internet duties. I'm still a bit behind for the blog, but I'm definitely completely lost with my emails: After the group email I sent for Christmas, hoping to have news from everybody... that's what I got, and I'm still going through it.
Comments
olla gringo
dos cervesa familial y dos vampirelo por favor
yek yek sa te rappelle des souvenir
A+
sylvanus