The flight was quite comfortable because there was a free space next to us. At the airport we exchanged £ 100 to Chilean pesos with a very poor rate and bought a bus to the center of Santiago. As soon as we got outside of the airport we almost sweated our socks off. We expected the weather to be warmer but we did not expect such a heat – over 30 degrees Celsius. We took the tube and walked to the hostel La Chimba and arrived all wet. The hostel is a huge and has a few outdoor courts where it is nice & cool for a lie down.
We walked around Bellavista quarter and bought food. Formerly it was a very wealthy part of the city, which transformed into a party district. Pubs, clubs and restaurants are swarming the streets. Most of the houses are painted with colorful graffiti.
We were surprised how expensive everything is. Cheaper food in a pub costs about 6000CLP (about 8£) and food in shops is not cheap either. But the wine is a bargain :). In Santiago it is very dusty – so much that the mountains at the horizon are visible only in contours. In total, we spent 3 nights in Santiago. We went through the center, visited a few galleries, climbed the hill above the Bellavista to get the views of the city. There we also took part in an intensive recorded Spanish-English language course.
For their English lessons these guys had a task to address foreigners in English and interview them. They had questions written on paper, but with so many mistakes that it was an effort to unravel the meaning. 🙂
Then we traveled on to a tiny hostel in Valparaiso, where we spent two nights. Highlight there was an elderly Japanese guy – during the day he was meditating on a concrete pier and the night was drinking. Every night he had before him 1.5 liter bottle of red and white wine, which he alternated glass by glass. He spoke in half whisper in similar fashion as the martial masters do in movies :). Valparaíso is a city on the hilly coast with lots of funiculars that serve as transport for locals and tourists alike.
Houses are brightly colored, glued to the hillside and painted with cool graffiti. Kaja explored the whole city in sandals with her socks on – latest fashion from Europe!
We also spent a day on a beach in a small town few minutes from Valparaiso – Vina del Mar.
Your Enlgish is actually quite good!
And socks in sandals are the only way to go …!!!