The fat txi driver

Trip Start Jun 15, 2007
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Trip End Dec 06, 2008


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Flag of Chile  ,
Wednesday, July 25, 2007

What to say what to say what to say about this place other than annoying taxi drivers. 700 Chilian pesos equals 1 euro, that[s confusing for a start but unlike in Argentina it[s easy to break the big notes of 10,000 pesos. If you had 100 Argentinian pesos which is the same as 25 euro you[d nearly go hungry because it was so hard to break the damn thing. Anyway walked the city for a few hours to see what the craic was like. Saw some amazing churches again in around the square. They seem to be more pious as a general observation in Chile. Climbed a hill at Cerro Santa Luica which is dotted with gardens and there[s some nice views from it too. Then walked to Cerro San Cristobal and took the Funicular train up to the top. We were there by sunset and saw the city by night. It was a pretty sweet view with the city to the forefront and the snow capped mountaind surrounding it. Lots of smog hanging over the city. We walked down some pitch black road to get to the bottom and eventually got there Santiago skyline
Santiago skyline
 . Next time Ill pay the 1 euro and join the queue to get down. Santiago is probably the safest city in south america so that was some consolation. There are some very nice fish restraunts around Bellavista area and probavbly all over the city. As reguards tourist attractions thats as far as it goes in the city Hence we decided to venture further afield to the satilite cities of Valparaiso (a port town) and Vina del Mar (a seaside resort).
Random stuff!!!
The countryside is full of vinyards similar to Mendoza.
Enpanadas are different in Chile too. As opposed to the Argentinian pastery parcels or chicken, mince or arabic (which i hope is not cammel) theres only mince but it has onions, eggs and some sort of fruity bits I think.
At a glance Chile looks to be more affluent, lots more makes of cars, like home almost, unlike the repeditive sightings of chevrolet, wolkswagen and a limited few others in Argentina and Brazil. The supermarkets have a bigger variety of food and there are far less homeless on the streets.
Small earthquakes happen every other day here but dont think I felt one yet.
We missed the homecoming of the national under 21Chilian soccer team to Santiago by a day Night lights
Night lights
 . From what I hear they got a heros welcome even tho they came third.
Better chocolate here than the last few countries and ye know I like to dabble in choco. You can buy cadburys everywhere but it doesnt taste the same.
I gota reiterate, the amount of dogs in this continent is unbelievable. There`s one on every single corner of every street.
There`s Kioskos every 100m or so too which sell the likes of magazines, papers, porn, sweets, callcards and cigarettes.
And talking about selling stuff well there are random people selling totally random nick nacks. I mean anything from packets of nuts or needles and thread or strips of bandages or popcorn or socks and they seem to specialise in just one. Imagine standing at a corner all day trying to convince someone to buy a television arial.
Young fellas then can be seen trying to make a buck by juggling at intersections when the traffic lights are red and some of these guys are phenominal at it.
Lots of older fellas usually can be seen on benches and the likes playing dominos as opposed to cards.
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