Chilly in Chile

 

The Flight

(First views of the Andes)

The flight was easy as usually. I am pretty notorious for being able to sleep through almost any form of transportation. This can be a curse sometimes when you want to stay awake and watch the world pass you by. However, in these circumstances it was fabulous to fall asleep after watching American Sniper and slept through the entire night.my first memory of waking was to the burning orange sky as the sun rose behind the mountains. This was my first views of the Andes and the foreign land beyond the equator.

(The rising sun)

First impressions: I should've learned to speak Spanish.

Two things were immediately apparent as we exited the plane and entered chile. First, the temperatures are freezing and it truly is winter! This has always been a bizarre concept in my mind despite science proves it extremely true. Second, English is not that widely spoken it seems. Travel tourism is huge in tourism that caters towards the English speaker. Unless I was off the beaten path, which I did often, I was always with the comfort of being able to ask questions in English. Here would be different.

When going the immigration you need to present a form. Both of us left our on the plane, whoops. We approached the information personnel and asked for a new one. She proceeded to give us directions in Spanish and thus our broken English Spanish trip began. A nice lady came up and translated the directions for us.

At this point I let my panic and few take over for a few minutes. Over the past few weeks I have been questioning my choice to come to South America this summer. I knew I wanted to travel but after so many month is South East Asia I feared I would miss that culture this summer. After a few minutes I pushed the feeling away and was greeted with the wonderful excited about how new and different this would be. I would be out of my comfort zone and immersed in a culture totally different. This is exactly what I loved about travelling! However, I will admit that I am glad I will be starting it off with my mom!

A few hours later, the longest Immigration process I've experience to date, and we were officially in Chile! Getting in a taxi we were met by the loveliest taxi driver. Speaking very little English our thirty minute ride to the city was spent with him teaching us Spanish words and giving us a full tour along the way. Even when we arrived at the hotel the receptionist commented on how pleasant and professional our driver was.

Santiago

(Latin America's tallest building)

Arriving in a city at this hour it was expected that our room would not be ready. Although we were slightly tired we knew we had to get out and explore the city. As we left the hotel and turned down the streets artwork popped up everywhere. The buildings were covered with interesting pictures and graffiti depicting different messages.

(Street Work)

Walking down one of the main streets of pino noi we were greeted by sleepy restaurants just waking up for the day. It was clear that later they would probably be bustling with business. It was our luck that we flew into chile during the Copa America football tournament hosted by Chile and on this day Chile was playing a match. All around flags, horns, hats, and other apparel was being sold for the game.

We decided to take a hop on hop off bus so that we could see as much of the city possible. This choice immediately led us down a street that was full of protesters on either side of the road chanting at the other. As our bus made out way through the crowd I got our my camera

(Protesters)

We past many historic buildings and such before making the decision to get off at the Marcardo Central, or Central Market. The place was bustling with stalls selling fish, squid, clams, crabs, and anything seafood. In the main plaza restaurants ushered us in to eat their fresh seafood that allowed the buyer to choose exactly which fish they wanted to eat. The best part is when we entered one side vendor who was playing salsa music and was swinging his butcher knife and chopping meat to the beat. Yes, I did just rhyme. It must be the primary teacher in me.

(Fish Face)

After some exploring we went back on the main streets to find some less fishy food. We went to a little cafe and did our best to choose some food. My mom went with the safe choice that we knew said chicken and cheese filled. I on the other hand pointed to the longest words and chose to eat that. It turned out to be some type of weird cheese, mushrooms, cucumbers, and some type of meat wrapped in dough. Tasty!

After grabbing a quick snack, our first food of the day at 2pm, we decided to just push through the day and continue sight seeing. Who can go back to a hotel when there is a city to explore. Getting dropped off at St. Lucia hill we started our hike to the top.

(Viewpoint from the top of St. Lucia hill)

The hill had a cool castle built on it with steep stone steps. A few breaks later and we were at the top. The view was incredible and we could make out the mountains behind the city. There was a bit of a fog, which we found out is actually a smoggy pollution, which covered the mountains slightly.

When we arrived at the bottom we found side street after street of arts and crafts for sale. Copper is a huge industry in Chile and they were selling every type of jewellery, decoration, and pottery possible. I chose a hand crafted ring with green stone for a whopping prices of........ wait for it....... $1.40! Yes, shopping may be an addiction. I am going to get it in while we have empty suitcases to get it home before my mom leaves.

This would be a good time to explain that much of the large suitcases were packed with snacks and a carry on. We figured we could eat the snack and take out the carry on for my mom to get souvenirs and decorations home! Can you tell we have done this before?

The bus ride back was a long one to say the least! With the football game starting in less than two hours the streets were crowded and the traffic was terrible. We watched the sun set turning the mountains a pumpkin orange as we trudged along.

Once we were dropped off back at the main area we walked down the streets that we first did in the morning. The restaurants were now alive with fans for the game. Adorned with Chilean, Mexican, Bolivian, and Jamaican gear (some people travelled far for the games) they sat at the bar and cheered on their team.

We chose to eat outside by a heater. Basically we ate on top of the heater because we were so cold. The waiter helped us pick a dish of fries topped with tons of onion, gravy, and beef. While my mom stuck with the traditional diet coke I decided to try out the famous Chilean wine. It twas tasty!

Completely wiped we couldn't resist joining in the football fun! We walked up and down the streets watching fans cheers and blow horns. We were decorated with hats and a flags to fit in! Most of the restaurants had balloons, banners, flags, and lights in red, white, and blue to cheer on their home Chilean team! Sadly they lost.

What a great start to the trip!