SANTIAGO
7-11 may
post by scott
To get to from South America to Africa on our round-the-world ticket meant that we had to go through Santiago, Chile. Instead of just transiting through the airport we decided to stop in for 3 nights and check out the city. Neither of us had done any research on Santiago so we had absolutely no idea what to expect. In my mind I was imagining another dirty, overpopulated city filled with slums and poverty. However what we discovered was completely the opposite - it was modern, upmarket, clean, trendy and very, very expensive - Just to get into the country was over a hundred clams each for a tourist visa!
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We arrived on the redeye flight at 3am on a chilly Chile morning and got an Australian priced taxi into the bohemian district of Bella Vista - an area with a similar vibe to West End in Brisbane with a university smack bang in the middle. Weirdly though the street cafes, art stores and grafittied walls are interspered with mechanics making the area a hub for both dining out and automotive repairs.. After finally locating our hostel, a purple fronted building completely devoid of any signage, we woke up the entire place by ascending the squeakiest staircase in the world and then hit the sack hard.
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What seemed like minutes later and Allana was up and at em, keen to make the most of our time in Santiago and adjust to the new (some would say worse) time zone. First order of business was a room change because there were no locks on the door, then we rugged up and went out for a good old explore. Walking through Bella Vista it was not yet midday and there were already loads of twenty-somethings drinking beer on the street (presumably instead of going to uni). We had an expensive and unsatisfying breakfast before hitting the pavement towards the city proper.
At this time of year the river is just a trickle of water running through a cement ditch. We crossed over one of the many bridges connecting the city and into the CBD, enjoying a well made espresso that was so rare in Peru and Mexico. After some aimless strolling we honed in on the main square and sat with the Chileans enjoying the sun and watching huge flocks of pigeons. We picked up some information from the underground cave they called tourist information and then spent the afternoon trying to stay awake at the movies. Back in Bella Vista we got our hands on some great Chilean wine and enjoyed a fantastic (and expensive!) meal on the street - happy to have made the stopover!
undurraga winery
Our main perogative in Santiago was to get out to a winery, so we forked out the cash and got the bus to "Undurraga", which is just 40 minutes drive out of town. It was a lovely sunny morning to wander around eating grapes off the vine with another Aussie couple and a couple of American diplomats. When they offered us some glasses to keep I thought there was no way we could keep them in our bags but Allana has lovingly wrapped them up and kept them intact so we can be real flashpackers!
the long haul to africa..
The trip to Africa was a real long haul.. From Santiago we first had to stopover at Sao Paulo for 6 hours, just long enough for Allana to use some Portugese, eat a pao de queso (disgusting cheese bread) and have a major scare when we were called up by South African airlines and told we couldn't fly without an entry permission leter from Rwanda. Thankfully they were nice enough to pull our luggage off the plane and let us dig out the letter which we had forgotten to keep with us! Nine hours later we were in Johannesburg, and another 7 hours later we would finally arrive in Rwanda!