Santiago

The flight into Santiago goes right over the Andes mountains, and the plane descends right between them, so you can see the mountains out of both windows! Bailey and I arrived in Santiago at 9am, but it took us two hours to pay for our $140 visitor visa (yuck!), go through immigration, and then go through customs. We grabbed a van to Los Leones in the Providencia neighborhood, which is where we are to meet Carlos, one of Bailey's friends from her job at Cliffs. 

I like Santiago so far. Santiago is the largest city and the capital city of Chile. It is very spread out, like Atlanta, with several suburbs and neighborhoods. Santiago is a city in a basin that is surrounded by mountains. It is a beautiful set-up with the city built on perfectly flat land with the protective Andes 360 degrees around the city. It's very pretty, even with the mountains holding the smog in the basin. The weather is warm and dry, and the mountains are brown with short brush. There are several vineyards since the warmth and dry weather are perfect for growing grapes. Santiago is cold at night when the sun goes down since there is very little humidity. The temperature swing today was 9 degrees Celcius to 27 degrees Celcius!

Santiago is bustling! There are tons of people, restaurants, coffee shops, shopping centers, and fast food restaurants. There are even cute little flower booths and candy booths on the sidewalks, and there are red public phone booths everywhere. The metro is super easy to use and super cheap, with a one-way ticket costing 600 Chilean Pesos, which is about $1.50. That's really nice compared to Sydney's $15 one-way metro rides!

In fact, most everything in Chile so far is inexpensive. Dinner tonight was 2000 pesos ($4) and the bottle of Pisco liquor we bought for the night was 8000 pesos ($8). This is an extremely welcomed change from the overly expensive Australia! I spent about $20 today on mostly food and transportation. If I keep that up everyday, I'd only spend $600 during the whole trip! Haha I doubt that'll happen with the long distance bus rides and rafting that Bailey and I are planning on doing, but it's still uber cheap (except electronics, which are twice as expensive in Chile, especially Apple products... Let's just say I won't be whipping out my iPad in public).

Everyone speaks Spanish of course, but here's what I did not expect- no one speaks English. Even though I am una gringa (a foreigner) and clearly not from here, Chileans do not speak to me in English, even if I approach them speaking English. Even in Hungary and Czech Republic I could find people who spoke and understood English comfortably, but here that is definitely not the case. It's either Spanish or nothing. So, it's challenging, but Bailey is very good at Spanish and I just need to practice, so we are a good team.

Mostly everybody smokes in Chile. In the streets, indoors, in the cars... Which means I'm going to have to get used to my clothes and bags smelling like smoke. There is no avoiding it. In Santiago, mostly everybody wears long pants as well. Even when it's so hot outside, everyone is wearing long pants. Bailey and I did the first day, but by the second day we were in shorts. It was just too hot.

The Chileans in Santiago do not look quite like I expected either. I think i expected to see people who are more dark-skinned with dark brown hair, like in Mexico. However, the people here have a lighter complexion with varying dark to light hair color. Bailey says that this is really only the case in Santiago, and when we get outside of the city I will see that the more rural Chileans have darker complexion and darker hair. Also, in terms of size, compared to the women in Europe who are string beans, and the women in Australia who are tall and fit, the women here shorter and  larger, but a healthy larger, like from all of the amazing Chilean food :) 

Speaking of Chilean food, it probably deserves a post of its own, but I have not had much yet. However, I do know that Chileans do not eat what you would consider Mexican food, like tacos and burritos and enchiladas. Chileans eat a lot of meat (mostly beef), potatoes, beets, cabbage, and fried foods, like empanadas and sopapillas. I had a completo for dinner today, which is a hot dog topped with tomatoes, avocado, and mayo. It was interesting. Definitely good, but I'm not sure if I would have another one. 


So we met up with Carlos around 4pm after he got off of work. Carlos is a friend of Bailey's from Cliffs, and he works as a waiter and bellhop at an International Hotel in Santiago, the Santiago Park Plaza. Carlos is taller with longer dark hair, and is loud and spastic. So fun! He speaks English, so that makes it easier to get to know him too. Carlos and Bailey were so happy to see each other, which was exciting! Bailey says she feels as if she never left Chile and is picking up right where she left off :)


Bailey, Carlos, and I went to the Plaza de Armas, which is near the city center of Santiago. There is a fountain in the middle, as well as a cathedral and a museum. It's a popular place for pickpockets, so we had to stick together, especially because Bailey and I were carrying our big backpacks since we had come from the airport. The Catedral de Santiago was beautiful and big inside, with paintings on the ceilings that reminded me of the Vatican (though not quite as grand). The Museo Historical Nacional was very neat, only $1.50 to enter, and we got to see clothes and items from the native Chileans and the Spanish conquistadores.

So far I am really liking the culture in Chile! The family definitely comes first. Bailey and I stayed at Carlos's house tonight. At 27-years-old, Carlos lives at home with his 25-year-old brother Christopher, his mom and dad, and his two great aunts, who are adorable. I've enjoyed meeting his family and trying to talk to them in Spanish (as they do not understand English). They are so hospitable and friendly! When Bailey and I first arrived at the house, one of Carlos's great aunts starts saying "Milagro! Milagro!" haha it's a miracle!


Tonight, Bailey, Carlos, Christopher, and I drove up to the mountain side where you could overlook Santiago and see the city lights. We drank Piscola, which is the Chilean liquor Pisco mixed with Coke, it tasted sweet like maple syrup. The city lights were so pretty! I was shocked by just how flat it is. It was a wide expanse of city lights as far as the eye could see. There were not any tall buildings like you would see if you were looking out at Atlanta. I winder where all of Santiago's businesses are. Carlos said all we could really see were the residences and suburban neighborhoods of Santiago rather than the city center. Wow Santiago is huge if we couldn't see the city center in this ocean of lights. Oh and the night sky was clear too, so I got to see the Southern Cross again, as well as the inverted Orion! So happy!