So we got a bus to Santiago (the capital of Chile) and had one last night with the gap tour group in this big city. Marcel (second gap tour leader) took us to a favourite bar of his called The Clinic, which is actually named after a magazine that I gather runs some sort of lefty political commentary. The bar was pretty funky and the walls were covered with The Clinic magazine covers, and emblazoned with large motos in Spanish that we couldn’t understand. However it had a good vibe about the place so we had a couple of Vodca Collins and then ordered in some food.
One thing I forgot to mention while we were in Buenos Aires, and I really noticed again in Santiago, is that a lot of people still smoke in South America. Unlike the UK there is no ban against smoking indoors, so when our dinner arrived we were eating it next to people that were chain smoking (yuck). The smoking in bars also has the unpleasant side affect of burning eyes and a sore throat, which I suppose makes you drink more, and we had to launder the set of clothes we were wearing the following day as they literally reeked of smoke. Its been a while now since the smoking ban in London and Id forgotten just how unpleasant the side affects are for non smokers.
Anyway other than the smoking crowd it was a nice bar, and had some funky lampshades covered in womens underwear. From there we took a taxi a short distance to another place that had a live band playing, and then a DJ later on, so we had a bit of a boogie. Another footnote here is that the South Americans all seem to love their cheesy eighties music. The taxis and clubs and some restaurants weve been in have played anything from Rod stewardt, to Madonna to Rick Astley and it’s a bit like being in a time warp!
So the music on the dance floor was sometimes a bit retro, but we had a good night before flagging a taxi back to the hotel around 3h30.
The following morning we had to be up bright and early (okay maybe just early after not getting much sleep) to claim our free breakfast (no cheese and ham here yay), get packed, say our goodbyes to the gap group and check out of the hotel. It was sad saying goodbye to the people that weve been travelling with for the past month, but also exciting to be heading off on our own and hopefully taking the foot off the gas a bit. Whilst the built in company, the sites and the ease of travel (having your route, hotels and buses all booked for you makes travelling a doddle) were great, the pace was a bit hectic for me. After a maximum of three nights in each place it feels like we need a holiday from our holiday, if you know what I mean.
So with this in mind we’d booked ourselves in to a hostel in Santiago for 3 nights, so after checking out of the hotel, we walked the 20 minutes to the new hostel carrying all our gear. If we’d known we were pretty much walking along the metro line at the time (and how cheap the metro tickets are) we probably would have taken the Metro instead. It was around this time we decided that we really needed to sort out our Cuban tourist cards (for the upcoming Cuban trip), as Santiago is the last major city, likely to have a Cuban embassy on our route. We took the metro back in to the centre of town and went in to a LAN (airline) agency, where we had to take a number and wait to be called up for attention (bit odd, how busy does this airline get?). Our opening remark was Hola, Hablas Ingles? To which the man replied ‘No’ with all seriousness, and we both had a nervous chuckle at that. Fortunately he understood a little more than he could speak and let us know that the agency didn’t handle any visas, but pointed us in the direction of a travel agent a few blocks away. So off we went to the travel agent, and asked if anyone spoke any English, which fortunately one lady did, though she explained that they only sell Cuban visas as part of a package (e.g. flights and visa or accommodation and visa), so we took her card as a fallback option, and left it at that.
The following day we braved the Metro, which was surprisingly easy to use (asking for 2 billeto sufficed) and headed for the Cuban embassy. This time we really thought that our lack of Spanish might be a problem, but the woman handling our visas was rather pleased to have a pair of English speaking tourists there (what a novelty) and said she wanted to practise her English. She was very sweet, and when we asked how long the visas would be valid for, she said 30 years, and then corrected herself with 30 days lol. We taught her the word ‘return’ and she said that she would ‘return’ our passports the following day, so after surprisingly little in the way of questioning (we didn’t actually need the flight or accommodation information we’d printed out in preparation via an internet cafe), off we went.
The following day we headed back to the Metro station and attempted to buy 2 Tarjeta Bip (Bip cards), that are like Oyster cards that you can charge up to use on the Metro and buses. We asked the woman behind the glass window for two cards and to charge each one with 2000 pesos, (our Spanish and/ or gesturing is improving daily) and she started about the business of loading one card. At this point we handed her the 4000 pesos through the window and she started asking us for more money by showing us the total of 6500 on a calculator. So we promptly remembered the word Cancelar, but apparently it was too late for one card as it had already been charged up, so we ended up paying the extra for one card and cancelling the second card. We figured out from the receipt that there is a 1250 peso charge for issuing the card itself. Oh well I am now the proud owner of one Tarjeta Bip card!
Then we headed back to the Cuban embassy to fetch our passports. We had to press a little button on the wall outside, for them to open the gates and let us in. Steve pushed the button and said ‘Collecting passports’ and the Spanish woman on the other end made Spanish noises that she didn’t understand us, so I tried ‘Collectionnar Passporte’ and that seemed to do the trick - now I ask you are these two phrases really all that different. I think it was the fake Spanish accent that swung it! So passports and Cuban tourist cards in hand, we high fived our way out of there, feeling very pleased with ourselves.
It’s a wonder what the power of the internet (to get the Cuban embassy address and opening hours) and a little English / Spanish translation dictionary can get you.
Having arranged the Cuban tourist card independently, we are now free to choose our own casa particular accommodation in Cuba, rather than being forced to take one of the more expensive hotels on offer through a travel agent package. Anyway Cuban tourist cards in hand, we were then free to explore Santiago a little, so we headed back in to Centro and had a walk around. Took some pictures in the square (Plaza de Armas where the Tourist Information people ride around on Segways!) and visited the Pre Colombian museum to see the little Mapucho, Inca and other sculptures there which was pretty good. We had a laugh trying to find the entrance to that museum, which was hidden behind some sort of renovation works, and almost ended up in an adult theatre instead, which for some reason had 2 Pre colombian museum signs on either side of it, even though we were nowhere near the diverted entrance.
As we had some more time in Santiago we also headed up their funicular (railway) to see the views out over Santiago. Just when we were beginning to think we were special, we overheard 4 other south Africans talking at the top and realised we were not the only South Africans in the village! The funicular was in a student area, so we managed to find a tasty yet economical lunch (roast chicken and chips special) before the rain started coming down. It is Winter here after all (apparently the coldest in 50 years), and Lord knows we are looking forward to a bit of sunshine in Venezuela when we get there.
We also decided to try and see a movie while we were in a big city, so we headed to the Hoyts movie theatre in Centro. I was hoping to see Eclipse but it had already finished screening. After queing for ages and looking up the word for movie in Spanish, we got to the front and asked if there were any movies showing in English, in answer to which she pointed at 2 names behind her on the board, and we chose one at random - The Sorcerers Apprentice starring Nicholas Cage. Now whilst we are usually both Nicholas Cage fans, we came out of this movie in firm agreement that the sorcerers apprentice is one of the worst movies ever made, so take our advice and avoid that one at all costs. However it was nice to sit in a movie theatre, listen to a movie in English and get a little bit of normality while we were in Santiago. We could almost believe we were around the corner from the flat in London watching the movie, well after the Spanish trailers anyway.
One night in the hostel we met a couple of other English speaking travellers from Ohio, Ireland and Wales, who were very into their music, so we sat around on couches and compared bands in London with those in Ohio and Ireland. The notepad came in handy as we were able to look people up on Utube and show them a couple of songs (Springbok Nude Girls went down a treat). We had a fun night, as the two guys from Ohio used to be in a band, and one could sing while the other played guitar (which someone found lying around the hostel) so they played us a couple of songs and they were really good.
The last night in the hostel they arranged for a braai, and there were a new group of people, who gave us some tips on travelling in Peru and Thailand which were pretty useful, so we are starting to understand the benefits of staying in hostels and chatting to other travellers now that we are travelling on our own.
The following day we got up early, got packed and walked down to the Los Heroes metro station, to get the airport bus to Santiago airport (runs every 15 mins, very efficient and pretty cheap). Then we got a flight to Calama, which is the nearest airport to San Pedro de Atacama. We did a bit of reading online the night before about transferring from Calama airport to San pedro, and thought we would be taking a Tur Bus from Calama. However when we got off the plane in the tiny airport, we couldn’t see any taxis to Calama, so we ended up paying for a transfer with Licanbur instead, which after 1.5 hours dropped us neatly at our hostel in San Pedro (more expensive, but easier and quicker).
We have 5 nights in San Pedro de Atacama before we head back to Santiago, and then we have a couple of nights booked in Santiago again before we head up to Venezuela.
More on San Pedro de Atacama later.
Love to all at home.
Kirsty
No comments:
Post a Comment