Ripped off in South America (already!)

We arrived in Chile very tired, but there, we had finally managed to organise Couchsurfing! This meant that we were going to have to speak to people and seem lively instead of just crawling into bed. The guys who were hosting us sounded very relaxed on their profiles and in the messages we exchanged, so I wasn't too worried. Also I thought being encouraged to stay up until normal bedtime in the new time zone would really help avoid jet-lag.

Me, Joanne, Jaime, and Pablo

The two guys, Pablo and Jaime, were very nice and, although they were very chatty, they understood that we were not exactly lives and souls of the party after our flight. Pablo was from Uruguay, which was very interesting and useful, since we hadn't yet decided whether we were going there; Jaime was a native of Chile. They told us that the rest of South America doesn't think that Chileans speak Spanish, but some other related language and Argentinians, and especially the Uruguayans sound more like they are speaking Italian because of the slow, sing-song way that they speak Spanish, which is much easier to understand.

That night we both slept for fourteen hours. Excellent! From 10pm until midday. However this meant that my avoiding jet-lag plan hadn't exactly worked, but at least we'd caught up on some much-needed sleep. We had thought we would wake up at 8am, after all who can sleep longer than ten hours?

Joanne neither up nor down

We went out for a wee look around. Pablo, Jaime, and the guidebook has told us there wasn't really much for tourist to do in Santiago except climb both of the cerros, which you can do in one day. Since half the day was gone we decided to go for the smaller one, Cerro Santa Lucia, as it also had the advantage of being closer to Pablo and Jaime's flat. The weather wasn't great, but we hoped we would get a view of the Andes, which we had been told you can see from the city. When we arrived the previous day, the weather was so bad that there was no chance, but it had improved a bit since then. Even on the walk to the park we could see hints of the Andes between the buildings. It's really nice to see such massive mountains from the middle of the city.

City and mountains

Santa Cristobel (the other hill)

A snogging couple in the park

When we entered the park and climbed up the wee hill it was lovely and the view was much better over all the buildings. One very nice thing about the park is that it was full of couples snogging. After Asia it was really nice to see some affection between people; Joanne and I had just spent the first seven months of our honeymoon [I like that phrase :-)] having to be careful not to hold hands in public in case we offended a local. What a change: some of the behaviour in this park would certainly not have gone unnoticed in Glasgow. From the top of the hill we could almost see the Andes clearly but there is too much pollution to see them properly. We found a place near the hill selling empanadas, which we had to have as they are a national speciality. They were quite nice, but rather reminscent of a Greggs pie. That was lunch.

Pollution and mountains

Big mountains, ugly city

Nice fountain in Cerro Santa Lucia park

More of Cerro Santa Lucia pretty bits

On top of the city, looking down on pollution

Later we headed to Bella Vista, which the guide book says is a trendy part of town and great for night life. On the way we were intercepted by a student who was handing out poetry to make money, because the government is increasing the fees and it's impossible to live, he said. We had heard a fair bit the previous night about the relative political inclinations of Chile and Uruguay: in Uruguay health and education is free; in Chile you pay for everything. As we were travelling for a year, we had become quite hardened to begging; for one thing, our trip would be severely curtailed if we gave to everyone who seemed in need; for another thing it becomes very annoying when you are constantly targeted as an obvious walking piggy bank. Consequently we hadn't given much in India, probably about the same frequency as a middle-class Indian, and in India there was a lot of need. It may seem callous, but after refusing so many needy people in India, there was no way I was giving money to some poet-student who looked pretty well dressed. When I told him we couldn't afford it, he said please just a token, so I handed him a 100 Peso coin and he responded “It's too much of a token”, and refused to take it, so I just said OK and walked off. We still hadn't got used to the money at that point and, in fact, it was more stingy than I had intended to be! How are new-comers to the country supposed to understand a currency that only manages about 1000 to a pound? Mind you, writing this I've changed my mind: what beggar in Glasgow would have refused 10p? In fact in Chile the cost of living is much lower, so this is probably equivalent to 50p, although I have no idea how much glue costs in Chile.

Soon after we were lingering outside a bar with a sign for pisco sours, which we were obviously going to have to try as they are a national speciality, although if you ask Peruvians, apparently, the Chileans stole this speciality along with Ceviche from them, who invented them first and have the best ones. Later a Chilean guy would tell us that this is because the best lemons come from Peru and, since both specialities rely heavily on lemons, Chile could never has as good versions as Peru. As we were dawdling there a few locals came out, in high spirits, and invited us to join them. It was the girl's birthday, they told us. I didn't see the harm, although I felt a little nervous about a random encounter with strangers in South America, which I had been looking forward to with apprehension, slightly, all the way through safer-than-Europe Asia. Nevertheless, I felt our trip to Cuba had missed a little from not mixing enough with the locals whenever they seemed a bit shady (which was all the time), so I thought stopping off for one pisco sour would do no harm. The pisco sours were great, and the people we very nice and friendly, so we stayed for a beer too. Then one of the three left and soon after the bill arrived. The “brother” of the “birthday girl” threw in only a few coins even though most of the bill was theirs. I complained that their bill was much more than that and he put in a bit more, but I didn't feel confident enough in my smattering of Spanish to involve the staff and just decided to pay the extra 1500 Pesos. They had still been expecting us to meet them later in Bella Vista, but I told them that there was no way we were meeting them later if I had to pay so much extra towards the bill. If they had asked before, I might well have said yes, because the chat was good and it's only actually about £1.50, but they had broken at least one principle, so that was it. £1.50 to be encouraged to look up “La cuenta distinta” for next time didn't seem too costly.

After that we were in need of more food and the only thing we thought we could afford was another empanada. Pie for lunch and pie for dinner: a good Glasgow diet. We did get to Bella Vista alone and it was a great wee area. Actually it seems to be just one street. Litres of beer for only 990 Pesos and the whole street is jumping with activity. It wasn't great, though, that everyone smoked. We had got used to it in China, but New Zealand had made us sensitive again. The city and now, especially, the night life really reminded me of Barcelona. The lively atmosphere mostly. The architecture in Santiago doesn't have a whisper of a dream of Barcelona's, but the atmosphere is just a nice. And who cares how ugly the city is when you can see the Andes between every pair of buildings? One unexpected difference is that the people are much whiter in Chile. I had expected the people to look pretty much Spanish, but a bit darker due to mixing with the indigenous people. Now, there are plenty of people like that, but there are also a lot of locals who look northern European, which I was not expecting. I didn't realise, but there were a lot of later immigrants to South America after the original colonial days, and they have certainly left their genetic mark.

written by

The Happy Couple on September 4, 2009 from Santiago, Chile

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

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