Ok I tidied up the last entry to include the remainder of Santiago. You can take a read if you were curious as to what you missed. I took a train down to Talca. I so much prefer trains. I think I am always going to travel in them as opposed to buses. There was the first bit of rain I had seen since Bolivia, where coincidentally I rarely saw the sun. Also I realised I had developed a fear of small towns at night after having my nose smashed. Though in Pucon and here in Valdivia the fear has been drastically reduced, so I will put it down to post-traumatic nose disorder. I am tired, but writing this to MSTRKRFT so that helps. Really want to see them again, but don't think they are heading down here anytime soon. I met a couple of very uncommunicative Germans and stayed in a pretty cool hostel. Can't remember the name, but one of the best I have stayed in. Not expensive for here and you got cable tv, breakfast, excellent service and the owner is really interesting as well.
I got up really early, having bought a load of stuff from the supermarket and headed off into the National Park Altos de Lircay. I think thats spelt slightly wrong. I wanted to see Siete Tazas as well, but it was not looking like that would be possible. I took the bus there and slept all of the way. At the other end I met a German dude and we decided to hike the park together. Only he was going to try to hike from one park to the other in 4 days and I was going to hike with him to the mirador and walk about a little bit. Almost the same. Ah I have just reentered this blog. Last time I was writing in in the pleasant surroundings of Valdivia and now I am writing in the total shithole that is Rio Gallegos. On the plus side my new phone has a radio, so I get to listen to some good and sometimes dodgy music. Ah radio. Ah so where was I. Ah yeah hiking in the park. We hiked up through the ridges and the park looked like those in the Rockies in the States. Multicoloured. After being bored by the green and brown monotonous scenery of the Andean countries, it was nice to be back in a place with reds, oranges and yellows as well. A real mix of different colour schemes and styles. Very pretty. The path wound through the the campsite at the end. Number six. There I dropped my tent and went hiking with the German to the mirador. It had great sweeping views of the valley and the walk down would be a steep one. I opted out. Could not be arsed to walk back up the hill afterwards and you could see most of it from here. Ah I have crappy Argentine news in my ear about corrupt Rio Gallegos governors. At least its not adverts. Yeah 'I get fire from your tongue' seems some random group. Need to change channel. I opted to go back and hike up to the basalt or granite plateau. There I met a group of Chilean girls and chilled there looking at the sweep over the valley. The German and I had been farting around with topographical maps to work out which mountain was which. We weren't the best at it. Hope he made it back after camping up in the snow. From there I hiked across the top of the plateau to a beautiful lake, which included some hiking in snow (which was cold due to the holes in my shoes) and met some starving Chileans. I gave them a packet of crisps when I passed them again on the way back. Hiking through all these parts had taken the Germans 3 days. Took me less than one. I really think these lazy bastard hikers are not pushing themselves as much as they could do. I ran down the hill as I love running downhill parts of hikes. Takes less energy and a lot less time as you are just running with the gravity. My nose was starting to return to an appearance normal at this point. I rebroke my little left toe by kicking a rock on the way back and then just turfed in early into my tent.
The next day I was up with the sun. Well almost up with the sun. I decided to hike back out of the park as I had seen everything worth seeing and I had tested the tent. It was seemingly working fine. My stomach problem had maybe been from unfitness, as after hiking and my nose was broken it seems to function fine. I got out of the park and just missed a bus, so I had to sit there eating stale bread for an hour or so waiting for the bus. Eventually I got back to Talca and found out the Brazilian would get to Santiago the next day so I should head back. I did not do much. Just watched a lot of CSI, did my laundry and watched Liverpool get knocked out of the FA Cup. Hahahahah. Better for us. Fucking scousers. Torres, Benayoun and Gerrard got injured as well. Excellent as we would play a weakened Liverpool next week.
In the morning I got up early and got chatting with an Israeli guy who had been hiking around the middle of Chile. In the afternoon I took a bus back to Santiago to meet Marcela. I wanted to see Alex (the Colombian from, Manizales) as well but it depended on her. The hostel cost me $20 in Santiago. Damn this country. Too expensive. I met Marcela and we chatted before heading to meet Alex at his Colombian restaurant. She was tired and went back, so Alex and I went and chatted in a cafe until around 4am. Was good to catch up. Both me and Marcela realised early on that we both have strong, differing personalities and we were bound to end up clashing at some point.
In the morning I got up and met a girl from Sao Paolo. Very cute. We chatted for half an hour or so and then Marcela joined us. We went to Alex's house to have breakfast and bought a load of stuff from the supermarkets. They are not cheap in Chile. There is almost no point cooking. If you eat out it will cost you around the same amount of money, more or less. We had breakfast and then the other two went in the rooftop swimming pool. I did not have any clothes for it so had to stay on the side. Then I went and got a long overdue haircut, while the others went siteseeing. I cooked up a rather flat dinner. Always disappointing when you cook for some people for the first time and its a bit crap, as they will assume that is your level of cooking ability. Oh well. We went past a weird church that looked like it was constructed in four different time periods and then molded together. I still don't know why people bash Santiago so much. Its clearly a good city and one of three I would consider living in for a short period of time in Chile. We took a night bus to Concepcion and did not end up sleeping at all. Was a strange bus ride. Oh well. I was hoping Concepcion would be the only other expensive place in Chile that we stayed, but that was optimistic.
We arrived at 5am and the hotel would not let us check in until 7am. Shitty. We were both tired. Neither of us had really slept in the last few nights. There seemed a bit of game playing so I just went to sleep. Marcela went and chatted with the hotel owners and their son, who ended up hanging around with us a fair bit. Spurs and Liverpool both drew, while Man City lost. The Saints crushed the Cardinals. Excellent. They were in the NFC title match against the Vikings. Was going to be a good matchup the weekend afterwards. We walked around the town and saw a really cool little art gallery. Had a good mural painting that was very similar to the work od Diego Rivera. We then went to the local musuem, which was focusing on Mapuche history. Marcela did not fancy climbing the hill, so I set off to get a view of the city from the higher places. I always like to get the high point views. Its not a very pretty city. The rest of the city was shut down as the elections were the next day and they did not want any drunken voting.
The next day we were up and had some fun before breakfast, but it was pretty obvious we did not have great chemistry. This had been clear to both us really. Oh well. Onwards with the trip. Gloria needed a bit of help, so would give her a ring on skype. We went out to see the beaches of Concepcion. They were a bit rubbish strewn and just a bit rubbish in general. Water was still too cold. It was interesting to wander around some of the suburbs of the city though. Chilean small towns all possess a lot of multicoloured architecture. Very pretty. We even found a hobo lying in a tyre on the beach. Made for a fun photo for Marcela. The son had made us both perosnalised letters for when we left, which was a nice touch and then we took a bus to Temulco. Its a bit of an industrial shithole and the direction giving was so bad that we ended up wandering around for a while before we eventually found a bus to Pucon and we were heading to the Chilean version of Bariloche.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Chile Part 3: Santiago, La Serena and Vicuna
Hmm the blood seems to have stopped flowing. Well if not stopped, certainly reduced to mean this is the first bit of cotton wood shoved up my nose that has not gone red within one hour. I have high hopes I won't have to shove more cotton wool up my nose tomorrow and I can start to rehabilitate myself normally. In a continent as vanity obsessed as Latin America its never very flattering to walk around looking like you have been a contender for the heavyweight boxing title. People are so abhorred they won't even say thankyou when you hold open a door. Classy.
I was woken up by my landlady to leave the apartment in Santiago. I hate travelling without any form of alarm, but I am not going to buy yet another telephone until I get to Argentina as there I should get at least one year's usage out of it. I am also now travelling without a guidebook. To be fair to Lonely Planet I only used them for maps and bus times now and I can get them from tourist information and my Spanish is more than capable enough to take care of directions etc. Damn the bandage thing is wet, but it looks white from my angle so its not blood. Hoorah. Lucciana was not free until the evening, so I decided to head to the museums. I climbed up Cerro Santa Lucia, which has a cool castle at the top and a pleasant Japanese garden. I then went and took the cable car up the massive hill on the north side of thr river. Its in a multicoloured barrio that is funky in and of itself. I only wanted one way, but did not see the option for that (it exists) and bought a two way. It climbed to the top and the hill is kind of like Montserrate in Bogota, but you can see the smog cloud from the top. That's a shame. Its nowehere near as bad as LA's piss yellow cloud that hangs over the city, but I won't use this part to savage Los Angeles again. Its too shit to warrant it. Liverpool-Spurs got called off by the way due to a frozen pitch, but Lennon should be back for the next match. Arsenal drew and Man U are as well. At the top there is not much to see, but the view is good, except for the cloud. I opted to walk down and went down a path from the carpark. Seemed to go all the way down but did not. You cross a major path two thirds of the way down. Take a right there, because the down path goes straight to a fence. Shit. Its no fun hiking back up in the summer sun. I also had not brought water, but I was listening to some good African music and Michael Jackson. That main path runs past the second station and eventually leads to a way down. I think it took me two hours to get down, but the walk was quite pretty. At the bottom I gave the other ticket to some random couple and headed to the Art museum, which was shut on mondays. Great. Phoned around the family as it was my birthday and this was the day I fixed stuff up with the bank. Lucciana had her phone on silent from the conference she had been in and so missed my calls. I eventually made it there and they very generously took me out to a top class sushi place for dinner. They insisted on paying for my birthday as well. The company was good and the food was fucking top class. I had forgotten what good food tastes like. I have not maintained those standards since, it is fair to say. We talked all night and had monster cakes at another place. I don't have much money left, but I symbolically bought the drinks later to contribute something. It was a shame we had only got the one night together, but hopefully they will come and visit in Buenos Aires and I can repay the favour.
The next day I slept in a bit and then we got breakfast. We said goodbye and I headed to the art gallery, which was a collosal waste of time. One of the most disapponting art galleries I have been to. Normally they at least have one good thing and I had delayed leaving for this. In the end I took the metro (which is a way better system than the Economist seems to think it is) to the bus station and got a bus to La Serena. It took about 8 hours and arrived around 2.30am in the terminal, so I decided to sleep there for the rest of the night and then look for accomodation.
I did not think La Serena would be too busy, but I had forgotten that people would have to have left Valparaiso for somewhere after new year. Every hostel appeared to be full. Shit. Eventually after a lot of walking with the fucked up bag I found a hostel with space. I checked in and wondered around the town. Probably the least pretty of those I have been in so far, pretty small aswell, but nice enough. Least pretty in Chile that is. I came back to the hostel and in the kitchen were Mayra and Scott. Scott shouted over to me. This would be awkward after how it was left in Valparaiso. Scott was off for a run and Mayra said I should keep her company. Hmm a turnaround. We ended up walking down the beach and ahd coffee and shrimp/cheese empanadas in a cafe. Got the lunch eventually. We had a long chat on many things, mostly in Spanish as she has to use English all day normally. She thought I was staying in Vina and had never e-mailed her. I reminded her of her last comments and that I had e-mailed her. Oh well she did not remember too well. Maybe the blog might jump her memory. It was a lot more pleasant and less stressful time. We went back so she could do some washing and I walked to the beach for sunset, before heading out to see Ofelia as they did not want to join me. I told them to wake me the next day and went out. Met her at the gallery and ended up drinking with her cousin and his friends. Barmaids find it odd that I want a coke in a bar. Will be weirder back in England but I have dealt with it before. I promised them to go partying this weekend, but obviously that won't be happening now. Elephent men don't dance.
In the morning I woke up and noone had woken me. Hmm I figured they were just off, but have no concept of time. I always get the feeling they are looking to escape, but somehow we always bump into each other. At least Mayra seemed more relaxed in my company now. Testing the paper for blood with paper. Hmm yellowy. Much better than red anyway. I got breakfast and met Scott as Mayra must have gone to write her note while I was in the bathroom. Found it later. Anyway they left and I pottered around La Serena a while. All these chain of events led to me breaking my nose. When I eventually got a bus to La Serena it arrived too late to find accomodation. The drive on the way there is nice and I reckon the rest of the valley might be interesting. Never got to see it. They have a reservoir part way there that reminded me of the Hoover Dam area. Anyway. Nowhere to stay accept one place with no lock. With hindsight I should have taken it, but I dropped my luggage in the terminal equipaje and went off to book a tour for the observatory. Apparently you need to book a long time in advance. I don't think so somehow. I opted for the tour in Spanish as it looked more interesting (though I reckon they may be the same) at 12.30am and left. Bumped into Mayra and Scott again and chatted for a bit. They had been on a pisco tour they said was not that great. I did not go for obvious reasons. They also have horse rides under the stars somewhere here. It felt like I was stalking them, but I left to hike up the big jesus hill, which is kind of cool and probably the last time I will hear my mp3 player (though now with hindsight I am not c ertain I used it then). The little bag had stayed with me and I bumped into Mayra again in an internet cafe when we randomly got the two computers next to each other. Some sort of fate is going on here. Will have to catch up in Mendoza or Buenos Aires and probably will do by accident or design. I killed time online and got chatting with Marie-France online. Looks like she may come down to stay with me in april. Will be good as its been too long since I saw her. Eventually I went in search of a toilet. All the restaurants apparently did not have any. I was needing it badly now. They had shut the toilet in the terminal. Shit. Getting desperate. Ah excellent a dark alley. Damn it, the dark alley is guarded by an army of dogs. Shit. Eventually I just pissed on a house as I could not hold it any more. Relief all round. I took the tour and I believe I was the only non native speaker , but I understood around 90-95%. Some of the jokes flew by me. We got an interesting 40 minute presentation and then went up on the roof to look at various constellations through a telescope. The sky is unbelievably clear here and I had never seen stars like this, except maybe when Ollie and me camped in Mexican Hat. Though the telescope was disappointing. It showed stuff closer, but nowhere as awesome as those shots you get in space books. They just seemed like white dots more zoomed in. Oh well. Some of them were orange. That was better. Then we got some live music. Well it seemed like I was in Peru for a second. A band popped up and played two songs on pan pipes (one the simon and garfunkel one in a different style) and then plugged their cd. What a shameless sell. Anyway back to Vicuna (which has only 24,000 people so I still stand by my statement that towns are more dangerous than cities if you read what follows. Only other place I have been attacked in was my hometown of Watford with 80,000 people). In towns live the retards. Decent people live in cities or the countryside. Ok so I stopped off in the plaza to rest/sleep, when a gang of 6 hooded kids came in. Hmm. Was I in Watford. Two peeled off left and the other four went to the nightclub. This did not feel right as one of them had sized me up. I can tell when people do this from experience. I could see two of them and a dog come back into the park afterwards. I left the other way and figured they would follow me. They did. I walked fast, so did they. Ok now I know they want to rob me. I ran and so did they. Here is where I was a bit stupid. I clearly had them outgunned for pace (though not their dog) and I could have run into the nightclub, but was not thinking. Does not bode well for my decision making under pressure. That line will come back to haunt me if I ever run for prime minister and I can imagine justifying that in the future. Anyway, with those two options I ran a few blogs and then turned to face them. Stupid move. One of them had a metal rod (like a giant aerial) and whipped me with that. Then I managed to knock one over, but my attempt to bang the second guys head into the wall failed as I just banged my own head. Then they had me down and got some good kicks in. One broke my nose and the scattering of blood persuaded me that I was going to lose or had lost this one. I gave them the bag and they took my wallet thing. Dripping blood on the street, I asked them for my passport and they gave it to me. Excellent. So I asked for my bank cards and they gave me them as well. Excellent. Now considering those were the only two things worth losing I should have just negotiated. Everything else I have is a load of shit. Still I was bleeding a lot now. My money (40,000 pesos or 50 quid) was all with the cards, so the stupid fucks forgot to check that. Excellent. They got around 1,000 pesos and a bag full of books. Yep my bag was full of books for teaching English mainly. It also had a decrepid lonely planet, a dictionary and a Garcia Marquez novel. I am sure that's what they had in mind when they stole it. Oh it also had the diary, hence why I have to write this now while it is fresh. Good job I keep this online record for my adventures now that the hard copy is gone. Anyway next time they rob someone they should be able to do it in English. I told this to the medics and they thought it was funny, but that I was weird for making jokes after being beaten up. I had told Mayra the English take nothing seriously except sport. Anyway I was dripping blood and no idea how bad any injuries were. Did not have any real pain though, but my threshold is pretty high. I have been stitched without anaesthetic. Knocked on a door of a hostel and they would not help me, even dripping with blood. They are on Mistral street just opposite the Mamalluca tour office if anyone wants to know or even firebomb them for me. I staggered back to the club and a big group of Chileans were helping me. They thought my nose was broken. I did not as it did not hurt. Went to the club and washed my face. Then I woke up on the bathroom floor. Hmm I don't feel drunk. Where the fuck am I? Ah yeah I have been beaten up and I have just passed out and whacked my head on a urinal. Bit of a bump there. Disorientated is the right word. Only the second time I have passed out and was hoping it was from blood loss and not a kick in the head. Then the police arrived. I kept trying to buy water but they did not sell me any. They took me to the hospital and the doctors seemed bewildered by my statement that nothing serious was taken, I wasn't staying anywhere and I was on my own. In the end they x-rayed me and it all looked ok enough. I have the cd. Should be fun to view later on. Just a little crushed on the upper right side but I could breath still. I took it to mean it was only lightly fractured. Good test of my Spanish this incident though. All the doctors love the Premiership, one of the nurses was excited to have a foreigner, though the doctors assured me they had had a lot of foreigners in their hospital. I took that as a sign this town is a little dangerous. Meanwhile I am sure the thieves were getting to grips with present simple and will soon master 'give me your money.' Bengals v Jets has kicked off in the wildcard round. No idea who will win, but I bet the Chargers or Colts won't be scared of whichever shit team gets through. They said I need to see a specialist, but they cost a lot. I think it is Latin vanity as they can't stand anything not looking great. My dad however said if I can breath don't bother as the operation is horrible and he's broken his 4 times but you could not really tell. I am not a nose model so I think I will let it heal natural. Still yellow, not red. Woohoo. Maybe the last day with a plugged nose. They kept me in for observation. Excellent news. I got a place to sleep for free. All the medical stuff is free here. Class. They put me in a room with a young guy with one of those bags filled with water and a coughing old man. Hmm you can tell I have never spent much time in hospitals. First break in my life and first time I had slept in one. Hmm they take ages to let me go in the morning. I assumed the blood from one nose, meant a rupture and no internal bleeding. Still not dead, so I guess that holds. If I do die publish the blog as it stands as my last will and testament. Ok so I left and got to baggage woman. I apologised for being late, but she said I did not have to pay because my face was beat up. Excellent news. Another bonus.
I took a bus back to La Serena where I am now. Have not done much as I lost a fair whack of blood. Slept for 14 hours or so. The woman in the hostel said the kids must be from Santiaho and gave me a huge bit of watermelon. Every Chilean seems ashamed I got whooped in their country, so they are all very eager to do anything they can for me. I still prefer to do my own stuff though. Slept for a long long time after writing yesterday. Jhon informs me that someone rang him to say they have my bag and diary. Oh well. None of it is important enough to go back for and I don't fancy another kicking or visiting Vicuna again. One good thing about Chile is that stuff that's very expensive in other countries is just ok here, so you don't feel so guilty spènding money. Off to a book store in a bit to pick up some stuff. So today I stayed a long time in the hospital, because they forgot to put my details in the computer screen. A cute nurse fixed up my nose with more delacacy than the doctor in Vicuna. I am sure he pushed the cotton into my brain. She just walked in the internet place now actually. Ironies. Many ironies. Anyway I don't think much else will happen here. Maybe I will go and watch a shit film. I have considered contacting some people here to hang out with, but may just leave it as rest is probably a more sensible option. Oh well. At least I caught up with my diary. Sure some good, small things escaped like in the US, but should have covered the most of it. If the blood stops, I am off south.
Ok I figured I would update this. Managed to get back to the hostel afterwards and all of the Chilleans were so embarassed that one of their countrymen had broken my nose that they cooked a giant asado and invited me to join them. Second lot of really good food in a week. Was interesting to practice my Spanish in that environment. Just figured I would update that as the next day I took a bus to Santiago and stayed in a sex hotel just near the terminal. The woman on the door did not want to let me in because I looked dodgy with my broken nose. The blood had at least stopped by this point. You know you are in trouble when even a sex hotel won't let you stay with them. Remarkable how soon you forget something like that as well. Its been 2 weeks since I broke my nose and sometimes I forget it was broken. It seems to have healed looking almost like new, with only a mild deviation and noone I meet even mentions it as the eyes have stopped being purple lol. Anyway the sex hotel had a music player on the bed. I assume to set the mood. It had good taste in music as well, as there was only one channel, but it got cut off at midnight which was a shame. A Brazilian girl Marcela had contacted me to go travelling with her. I wrote that I hoped she did not bring drama lol. Will get to that. The next day I spent $72 for Lonely Planet Chile. Probably the most I have ever spent on a book and got a sleeping bag and a tent for a lot less. I decided to head south to road test this equipment and see if it would be up to the challenge of Patagonia or whether it would fold at the first challenge, like the Walmart equipment in Yellowstone. Damn, so long ago lol.
I was woken up by my landlady to leave the apartment in Santiago. I hate travelling without any form of alarm, but I am not going to buy yet another telephone until I get to Argentina as there I should get at least one year's usage out of it. I am also now travelling without a guidebook. To be fair to Lonely Planet I only used them for maps and bus times now and I can get them from tourist information and my Spanish is more than capable enough to take care of directions etc. Damn the bandage thing is wet, but it looks white from my angle so its not blood. Hoorah. Lucciana was not free until the evening, so I decided to head to the museums. I climbed up Cerro Santa Lucia, which has a cool castle at the top and a pleasant Japanese garden. I then went and took the cable car up the massive hill on the north side of thr river. Its in a multicoloured barrio that is funky in and of itself. I only wanted one way, but did not see the option for that (it exists) and bought a two way. It climbed to the top and the hill is kind of like Montserrate in Bogota, but you can see the smog cloud from the top. That's a shame. Its nowehere near as bad as LA's piss yellow cloud that hangs over the city, but I won't use this part to savage Los Angeles again. Its too shit to warrant it. Liverpool-Spurs got called off by the way due to a frozen pitch, but Lennon should be back for the next match. Arsenal drew and Man U are as well. At the top there is not much to see, but the view is good, except for the cloud. I opted to walk down and went down a path from the carpark. Seemed to go all the way down but did not. You cross a major path two thirds of the way down. Take a right there, because the down path goes straight to a fence. Shit. Its no fun hiking back up in the summer sun. I also had not brought water, but I was listening to some good African music and Michael Jackson. That main path runs past the second station and eventually leads to a way down. I think it took me two hours to get down, but the walk was quite pretty. At the bottom I gave the other ticket to some random couple and headed to the Art museum, which was shut on mondays. Great. Phoned around the family as it was my birthday and this was the day I fixed stuff up with the bank. Lucciana had her phone on silent from the conference she had been in and so missed my calls. I eventually made it there and they very generously took me out to a top class sushi place for dinner. They insisted on paying for my birthday as well. The company was good and the food was fucking top class. I had forgotten what good food tastes like. I have not maintained those standards since, it is fair to say. We talked all night and had monster cakes at another place. I don't have much money left, but I symbolically bought the drinks later to contribute something. It was a shame we had only got the one night together, but hopefully they will come and visit in Buenos Aires and I can repay the favour.
The next day I slept in a bit and then we got breakfast. We said goodbye and I headed to the art gallery, which was a collosal waste of time. One of the most disapponting art galleries I have been to. Normally they at least have one good thing and I had delayed leaving for this. In the end I took the metro (which is a way better system than the Economist seems to think it is) to the bus station and got a bus to La Serena. It took about 8 hours and arrived around 2.30am in the terminal, so I decided to sleep there for the rest of the night and then look for accomodation.
I did not think La Serena would be too busy, but I had forgotten that people would have to have left Valparaiso for somewhere after new year. Every hostel appeared to be full. Shit. Eventually after a lot of walking with the fucked up bag I found a hostel with space. I checked in and wondered around the town. Probably the least pretty of those I have been in so far, pretty small aswell, but nice enough. Least pretty in Chile that is. I came back to the hostel and in the kitchen were Mayra and Scott. Scott shouted over to me. This would be awkward after how it was left in Valparaiso. Scott was off for a run and Mayra said I should keep her company. Hmm a turnaround. We ended up walking down the beach and ahd coffee and shrimp/cheese empanadas in a cafe. Got the lunch eventually. We had a long chat on many things, mostly in Spanish as she has to use English all day normally. She thought I was staying in Vina and had never e-mailed her. I reminded her of her last comments and that I had e-mailed her. Oh well she did not remember too well. Maybe the blog might jump her memory. It was a lot more pleasant and less stressful time. We went back so she could do some washing and I walked to the beach for sunset, before heading out to see Ofelia as they did not want to join me. I told them to wake me the next day and went out. Met her at the gallery and ended up drinking with her cousin and his friends. Barmaids find it odd that I want a coke in a bar. Will be weirder back in England but I have dealt with it before. I promised them to go partying this weekend, but obviously that won't be happening now. Elephent men don't dance.
In the morning I woke up and noone had woken me. Hmm I figured they were just off, but have no concept of time. I always get the feeling they are looking to escape, but somehow we always bump into each other. At least Mayra seemed more relaxed in my company now. Testing the paper for blood with paper. Hmm yellowy. Much better than red anyway. I got breakfast and met Scott as Mayra must have gone to write her note while I was in the bathroom. Found it later. Anyway they left and I pottered around La Serena a while. All these chain of events led to me breaking my nose. When I eventually got a bus to La Serena it arrived too late to find accomodation. The drive on the way there is nice and I reckon the rest of the valley might be interesting. Never got to see it. They have a reservoir part way there that reminded me of the Hoover Dam area. Anyway. Nowhere to stay accept one place with no lock. With hindsight I should have taken it, but I dropped my luggage in the terminal equipaje and went off to book a tour for the observatory. Apparently you need to book a long time in advance. I don't think so somehow. I opted for the tour in Spanish as it looked more interesting (though I reckon they may be the same) at 12.30am and left. Bumped into Mayra and Scott again and chatted for a bit. They had been on a pisco tour they said was not that great. I did not go for obvious reasons. They also have horse rides under the stars somewhere here. It felt like I was stalking them, but I left to hike up the big jesus hill, which is kind of cool and probably the last time I will hear my mp3 player (though now with hindsight I am not c ertain I used it then). The little bag had stayed with me and I bumped into Mayra again in an internet cafe when we randomly got the two computers next to each other. Some sort of fate is going on here. Will have to catch up in Mendoza or Buenos Aires and probably will do by accident or design. I killed time online and got chatting with Marie-France online. Looks like she may come down to stay with me in april. Will be good as its been too long since I saw her. Eventually I went in search of a toilet. All the restaurants apparently did not have any. I was needing it badly now. They had shut the toilet in the terminal. Shit. Getting desperate. Ah excellent a dark alley. Damn it, the dark alley is guarded by an army of dogs. Shit. Eventually I just pissed on a house as I could not hold it any more. Relief all round. I took the tour and I believe I was the only non native speaker , but I understood around 90-95%. Some of the jokes flew by me. We got an interesting 40 minute presentation and then went up on the roof to look at various constellations through a telescope. The sky is unbelievably clear here and I had never seen stars like this, except maybe when Ollie and me camped in Mexican Hat. Though the telescope was disappointing. It showed stuff closer, but nowhere as awesome as those shots you get in space books. They just seemed like white dots more zoomed in. Oh well. Some of them were orange. That was better. Then we got some live music. Well it seemed like I was in Peru for a second. A band popped up and played two songs on pan pipes (one the simon and garfunkel one in a different style) and then plugged their cd. What a shameless sell. Anyway back to Vicuna (which has only 24,000 people so I still stand by my statement that towns are more dangerous than cities if you read what follows. Only other place I have been attacked in was my hometown of Watford with 80,000 people). In towns live the retards. Decent people live in cities or the countryside. Ok so I stopped off in the plaza to rest/sleep, when a gang of 6 hooded kids came in. Hmm. Was I in Watford. Two peeled off left and the other four went to the nightclub. This did not feel right as one of them had sized me up. I can tell when people do this from experience. I could see two of them and a dog come back into the park afterwards. I left the other way and figured they would follow me. They did. I walked fast, so did they. Ok now I know they want to rob me. I ran and so did they. Here is where I was a bit stupid. I clearly had them outgunned for pace (though not their dog) and I could have run into the nightclub, but was not thinking. Does not bode well for my decision making under pressure. That line will come back to haunt me if I ever run for prime minister and I can imagine justifying that in the future. Anyway, with those two options I ran a few blogs and then turned to face them. Stupid move. One of them had a metal rod (like a giant aerial) and whipped me with that. Then I managed to knock one over, but my attempt to bang the second guys head into the wall failed as I just banged my own head. Then they had me down and got some good kicks in. One broke my nose and the scattering of blood persuaded me that I was going to lose or had lost this one. I gave them the bag and they took my wallet thing. Dripping blood on the street, I asked them for my passport and they gave it to me. Excellent. So I asked for my bank cards and they gave me them as well. Excellent. Now considering those were the only two things worth losing I should have just negotiated. Everything else I have is a load of shit. Still I was bleeding a lot now. My money (40,000 pesos or 50 quid) was all with the cards, so the stupid fucks forgot to check that. Excellent. They got around 1,000 pesos and a bag full of books. Yep my bag was full of books for teaching English mainly. It also had a decrepid lonely planet, a dictionary and a Garcia Marquez novel. I am sure that's what they had in mind when they stole it. Oh it also had the diary, hence why I have to write this now while it is fresh. Good job I keep this online record for my adventures now that the hard copy is gone. Anyway next time they rob someone they should be able to do it in English. I told this to the medics and they thought it was funny, but that I was weird for making jokes after being beaten up. I had told Mayra the English take nothing seriously except sport. Anyway I was dripping blood and no idea how bad any injuries were. Did not have any real pain though, but my threshold is pretty high. I have been stitched without anaesthetic. Knocked on a door of a hostel and they would not help me, even dripping with blood. They are on Mistral street just opposite the Mamalluca tour office if anyone wants to know or even firebomb them for me. I staggered back to the club and a big group of Chileans were helping me. They thought my nose was broken. I did not as it did not hurt. Went to the club and washed my face. Then I woke up on the bathroom floor. Hmm I don't feel drunk. Where the fuck am I? Ah yeah I have been beaten up and I have just passed out and whacked my head on a urinal. Bit of a bump there. Disorientated is the right word. Only the second time I have passed out and was hoping it was from blood loss and not a kick in the head. Then the police arrived. I kept trying to buy water but they did not sell me any. They took me to the hospital and the doctors seemed bewildered by my statement that nothing serious was taken, I wasn't staying anywhere and I was on my own. In the end they x-rayed me and it all looked ok enough. I have the cd. Should be fun to view later on. Just a little crushed on the upper right side but I could breath still. I took it to mean it was only lightly fractured. Good test of my Spanish this incident though. All the doctors love the Premiership, one of the nurses was excited to have a foreigner, though the doctors assured me they had had a lot of foreigners in their hospital. I took that as a sign this town is a little dangerous. Meanwhile I am sure the thieves were getting to grips with present simple and will soon master 'give me your money.' Bengals v Jets has kicked off in the wildcard round. No idea who will win, but I bet the Chargers or Colts won't be scared of whichever shit team gets through. They said I need to see a specialist, but they cost a lot. I think it is Latin vanity as they can't stand anything not looking great. My dad however said if I can breath don't bother as the operation is horrible and he's broken his 4 times but you could not really tell. I am not a nose model so I think I will let it heal natural. Still yellow, not red. Woohoo. Maybe the last day with a plugged nose. They kept me in for observation. Excellent news. I got a place to sleep for free. All the medical stuff is free here. Class. They put me in a room with a young guy with one of those bags filled with water and a coughing old man. Hmm you can tell I have never spent much time in hospitals. First break in my life and first time I had slept in one. Hmm they take ages to let me go in the morning. I assumed the blood from one nose, meant a rupture and no internal bleeding. Still not dead, so I guess that holds. If I do die publish the blog as it stands as my last will and testament. Ok so I left and got to baggage woman. I apologised for being late, but she said I did not have to pay because my face was beat up. Excellent news. Another bonus.
I took a bus back to La Serena where I am now. Have not done much as I lost a fair whack of blood. Slept for 14 hours or so. The woman in the hostel said the kids must be from Santiaho and gave me a huge bit of watermelon. Every Chilean seems ashamed I got whooped in their country, so they are all very eager to do anything they can for me. I still prefer to do my own stuff though. Slept for a long long time after writing yesterday. Jhon informs me that someone rang him to say they have my bag and diary. Oh well. None of it is important enough to go back for and I don't fancy another kicking or visiting Vicuna again. One good thing about Chile is that stuff that's very expensive in other countries is just ok here, so you don't feel so guilty spènding money. Off to a book store in a bit to pick up some stuff. So today I stayed a long time in the hospital, because they forgot to put my details in the computer screen. A cute nurse fixed up my nose with more delacacy than the doctor in Vicuna. I am sure he pushed the cotton into my brain. She just walked in the internet place now actually. Ironies. Many ironies. Anyway I don't think much else will happen here. Maybe I will go and watch a shit film. I have considered contacting some people here to hang out with, but may just leave it as rest is probably a more sensible option. Oh well. At least I caught up with my diary. Sure some good, small things escaped like in the US, but should have covered the most of it. If the blood stops, I am off south.
Ok I figured I would update this. Managed to get back to the hostel afterwards and all of the Chilleans were so embarassed that one of their countrymen had broken my nose that they cooked a giant asado and invited me to join them. Second lot of really good food in a week. Was interesting to practice my Spanish in that environment. Just figured I would update that as the next day I took a bus to Santiago and stayed in a sex hotel just near the terminal. The woman on the door did not want to let me in because I looked dodgy with my broken nose. The blood had at least stopped by this point. You know you are in trouble when even a sex hotel won't let you stay with them. Remarkable how soon you forget something like that as well. Its been 2 weeks since I broke my nose and sometimes I forget it was broken. It seems to have healed looking almost like new, with only a mild deviation and noone I meet even mentions it as the eyes have stopped being purple lol. Anyway the sex hotel had a music player on the bed. I assume to set the mood. It had good taste in music as well, as there was only one channel, but it got cut off at midnight which was a shame. A Brazilian girl Marcela had contacted me to go travelling with her. I wrote that I hoped she did not bring drama lol. Will get to that. The next day I spent $72 for Lonely Planet Chile. Probably the most I have ever spent on a book and got a sleeping bag and a tent for a lot less. I decided to head south to road test this equipment and see if it would be up to the challenge of Patagonia or whether it would fold at the first challenge, like the Walmart equipment in Yellowstone. Damn, so long ago lol.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Chile Part 2: Santiago, Vaparaiso and Vina Del Mar
Ok I am sitting here bleeding from my broken nose and aware that my diary was stolen from me. This makes it an urgent necessity (are there any others) that I get this down while my momory is still fresh. Well relatively fresh. The main points should have stuck. Damn this keyboard is tough. I hate hard keyboards as I type too fast. The broken nose shit will be in the next part. Makes for a fun tale. Chile has been interesting good and bad in ways Bolivia could only dream of.
Ok I took a bus from Iquique and came to Antofagasta. There I stayed in the bus station, paid for a bus to Santiago and killed time chatting with an Argentine dude. Spanglish I believe it was. I am now very much speaking more Spanish than English in general and can only help my development even if all my dictionary and books are now missing. I am not bitter at all. Nope. Just like Wenger. Got the bus and took a second night bus in a row. Slept at least 14 our of the 17 hours and watched part of some film. Can't remember what it was. I don't think yo or I will lose sleep over that one. Although technically I did as I watched it. Eventually my marathon busathon brought me to Santiago. I had not bothered to look around Antofagasta as my main rucksack has broken. This means the metal rods stick out the top and break my back rather than supporting it. Its only got to last about 5-6 weeks more though and then I will be in Buenos Aires. The time has come to work. Rumour has it that this work thing happens to people who need money. That they make you do stuff and you lose your freedom. Sounds terrifying. Maybe I will kill it if I see it. I may even have come across it some time in my past.
I got into Santiago at about 7am. Breakfast and grab Lucciana's number off the internet. Of course if this was any other capital, but Chile does not believe life starts before 10am or so, so I was stranded in Barrio Brazil twiddling my thumbs. As places for this activity go, Santiago is not a bad one. Has a lot of places like London. Especially New York street (financial centre) which is a spit for Bank. I liked the city. Noone who lives there likes it. At least they don't beat you up for your bag, but then my current landlady reckons the little shits were from Santiago. Hmm its also the only capital city I can think of that is cheaper to buy stuff than any of the other parts of the country. Usually its the most expensive. I could live in this city. Eventually I met Lucciana and it was cool as it was almost two years since she had stayed with me in London. I was looking forward to this, but I was to be frustrated. I think the 29th and 30th december have been solely designed to piss me off. I fucking hate those dates. Anyway she had two Swedes staying with her and I think my opening line of Chile being much more cultural and better than Peru and Bolivia did not go down well with them. Ah damn it. Scandinavian, vegetarian, hippyistic (does this need another y? I think I invented it) socialists. I have always got on cracking with them. Also they had typical northern european cold personalities and I talk like talkie toaster in speed. This was not great. The atmosphere was a little awkward and we went out for drinks and food in the evening. Hmm. I kept trying to kick something into life, but I figured they had mae their judgment on me from the opening statement. My mouth is always going to walk me into problems. I have one of the most divisive personalities around. People either really like me or hate me. Chances are if you are reading this you like me as you have my facebook lol, but if it makes it into a book I am sure I will have facebook hate groups up in Ecuador at the very least. Scratch that. They will probably use the next entry as a template for kicking the shit out of me. Anyway I went to sleep and at some point in the night a powow was called with the others. The Swedes did not want to spend new year with me. Excellent. This left the plans in good fettle. Shit. This was the night of the 29th/30th. For those with long memories that was the same date that I lost my passport in Dominican Republic last year. I think for safety measures I will not go out next year on these dates. I still have hope that someone takes up the fatwa offer and kills these dates. Apparently a German friend told me that the Mayans did not have names for the last 5 days of the year and thought they were bad luck. Damn it. I knew I should not attack Guatemala so much. If I promise to say its the best country in the world, will the Mayan gods stop fucking me in the arse on these dates. I do love Tikal. Best ruins in the Americas and thats the honest truth.
Ok well being the mature man I have become and being diplomatic (about time) I said I would pull out and find something else and they should all go to Valparaiso together. In reality it made most sense, but that day walking in town I was feeling bitter, angry and a little upset as I come all the way to see Lucciana and can't see her because some Swedes can't find some middle ground. Dammit. Yeah lets whack on some Corrs. Been awhile. Maybe they can stop my nose leaking. I went to search accomodation for Valparaiso. Yep Valparaiso. The place lonely planet tells everyone to go. I am there on the 30th without accomodation. This was going to be fun. I found some for the 30th and the 1st in the same hostel. $20 for a night. They want $80 for new year. Fuck that. I can rumba all night and then limp back in at midday to check in for thefirst. Cunning eh. I even found a couchsurfer to drop my stuff for new years eve in Vina del Mar and they had a party on. Excellent. Problem solved, except for a bus. What's this? An e-mail from my dad. Nationwide want me to repay 900 pounds of my overdraft in 19 days. WTF. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Motherfuckers. I hate this date. They expect me to magic that out of my arse when I am not working. This was not resolved until 4 days later and hung over me for new year but I will take it on now to get it out of the way. The lazy shits took the whole weekend off. I phoned them and said why are you removing it. They said no money was being paid in. I informed them that no money had gone in for 18 months and they had no problem when they had 13,000 pounds of my savings but now it was overdrawn for 2 months they want the money back. I said they knew I was travelling for 18 months and there was one month left. They said it did not matter. I said ok lets set up a wind down payment. Yes I can do that but first I have to default, even though penalty interest is the same as legal. So basically al it does is fuck my credit rating and possibly damage my credit card limit (on which I am currently travelling). It was not possible for them to change it without default. That must be bollocks as I had the power to renegotiate facilities up to 10,000 pounds as a lowly grunt in corporate banking. Arseholes. I said if you fuck my credit rating why should I pay them. They said they would send debt collectors. I said to Argentina. Excellent. Their flights would be more than the debt and do they need a place to stay. They said I would have to pay when I come back. I said excellent. Thats in 10 years. Keep on waiting boys. That scared the shit out of him. Fun for me though. After playing brinksmanship I would have to phone again the next day to speak to collections or some other bunch of idiots. Then I rang all my family and my dad told me my uncle would cover it and I would have to pay him back as he thought it unfair it ws pulled on me with no warning. Excellent news. I was very grateful and also thinking maybe I should not have threatened the bank now that it will be paid. I hate nationwide sometimes but they are still cheap. Probably means I won't use them to bank with while working though as I don't trust them now. The bastards may steal my money out from under me by adjusting limits.
Anyway enough of these two dates. Evil though they are. I went off to the national history museum. Only I didn't, because I had read the map wrong and I ended up at the natural history museum. I just used their toilet and left. I have seen these museums before and the plastic whale was not a good start. Nice grounds though. Eventually I went for a wander through town and found the national history museum. Nice enough place. I could not be bothered with the pre-Colombian one. The art is always crappy and too religious. I still agree with Mark Twain on that. I wanted to search out stuff on the War of the Pacific. I expected a whole room, but on the first pass missed the whole one photo they have on the war. Way to belittle Peru and Bolivia, but then maybe they are just not very proud of it. I headed back. Ah yeah I had done my washing the day before and wandered all around Lucciana's apartment in just my shorts. Maybe that put off the Swedes. Grabbed my stuff and shot off to Valparaiso. I limped in late and found my hostel after a long walk. It is kind of Bohemian. I quite like there and Vina del Mar. Vina is probably the slightly cleaner cut of the two. It wa full of French and French Canadians so we were chatting in Spanish as normal. They were playing drinking games. I miss the camaraderie of those but its not the same if you are on coke. I taught them a few. They must have thought it weird that the guy who does not drink knew so many drinking games. I ended up talking philosophy an EU politics with a French dude until about 4.30am. Stupid for the 30th december but fun anyway. I love the intellectual edge to French culture and should be fun when I am living there eventually. Still we lost lot of sleep and I had to leave by midday.
I limped up in the morning and went and met a few couchsurfers to take a city tour. Our guide took us all over the city and we even took the famous 'elevators' (I reckon they are mini funiculars, but hey elevator is not a real word in England so make it what you want). There are a lot of multicoloured buildings, strange architecture and sweeping sea vistas. There was also a Brazilian and an American southerner. Excellent. Then we met some Spaniards and they have the same sense of weirdness as the French that an Englishman can speak Spanish. It happens. Will be good for when I am Prime Minister though as can address a few European countries in their own language. I think my Spanish is approaching Francois's French (in terms of speaking being way better than writing). Damn it can smell iron in my nose. I suppose at least its good that I can smell. I took the train to Vina (I don't care if its more expensive. Trains are better and you don't get them often). I am even thinking of going south from Santiago by train just because I can. That's why Chile is cool. I met the group of couchsurfers sortof. There was a big group of people standing around with rucksacks. I assumed it was them, but said nothing as they could be from the other bus. They thought I must be the odd Englishman but noone said anything for 10 minutes. Really awakward. Eventually an Italian doctor put us out of our misery and we all went to her place. The Chileans thought my accent and speed was funny, because I speak Spanish so fast. Then again I speak English fast and I think they have a weird accent. So we are even. There was an Argentine girl travelling with a Yank, the Italian, a German and 3 Chileans. Then we met a massive group of people and everyone got massacred. Ah yeah the Chilean girl has a phenomenal house in Vina and a giant white dog. He looks like a polar bear and I called him orso polar all the time. Then he tried to hump me. I think he could have had me if he really wanted. He was pretty big. Tease. We watched the fireworks down by the main square. Cool but did not have the big Chilean flag firework that had been rumoured. Ah I miss bits without the diary. Its like a jump cut. I remembered this stunning girl arriving and thinking who is she, then I realised it was the Argentine after she had changed. That ha to be the most drastic transofrmation I have seen. Very impressive without your home kit on the road. Everyone was plastered. Guido was being very Italian with the women, the Yankee Scott was so plastered he danced off somewhere on his own and lost his bag. The German scuttled off with one of the Chileans and we found them in bed together later. We had a huge 2m viking Dane with us. He was like a blonde lighthouse in the crowd. There was an Aussie who probably hooked up with the host. We lost them. Then Mayra was upset and crying as Scott was to look after her and this was the first time out of her country. She hated drunk people, but was a little drunk. This was a night of contradictions and wading through it sober is always fun. I promised to lok after Mayra and then she wanted to slap Scott in the face. I ended up looking after all the things as everyone else was battered. I got myself a Lenny Kravitz wig. That drew loads of attention. I got the number of a cute Chilean then lost it later on when I lost my phone. Shit. Everyone scattered and we ended up in a fucking salsa club. Mayra wanted to ring Argentina so we went looking for phones. Did not find one. Then she did not want to dance close, but was suddenly grinding me. Then we kissed and then she did not want to be treated like a slut, so I backed off and then she wa grinding me again. Then she was off somewhere else and the Chilean, Guido and Scott were dancing between us. Everytime we got close someone spun us away. It was like that scene from Grease (much as I hate that film to get a mention in my blog). Looks like I am still typing so I will go see Paranormal Activity. Or maybe I should just sleep. This was a demanding night. So much drama. Then Guido started groping the barmaids and when they resisted told them to fuck themselves so he was thrown out. He was back again soon after and dancing with Mayra, which rattled me a bit. Nevermind. We eventually left with more drama. We took a bus back and I suggested we get lunch the day after. Mayra said yes and then when we made it back and the Chilean broke into the house she went on a massive rant about not being touched and not wanting lunch etc. Ok. Enough. I had lost my phone again. I grabbed my bag, left and set off to hike the 8km back along the coast to Valparaiso with my mp3 player. I figured I would not see them again. The walk back was cool and I did the whole thing with my Kravitz wig. I kept that. Oh shit no I didn't as I think it was in the bag. Or maybe its not. Hmm will look into that. Anyway got loads of attention and it was class. Lots of fun. Took me ages I think and then eventually I got to the hostel and went in for free internet and to crash. Met a cool Chilean and a Colombian dude in the lobby and we chatted with a German girl. I should have slept, but instead went with them and two Dutch girls to the beach over in Vina Del Mar.
I am still no beach man and apparently the sea is so cold you freeze your nuts off. I did not experiment. Instead I spent 200 years attempting to buy some empanadas. Eventually when they did come they were very big. An empanada here would be a pastel in Colombia. Some dude talked to me a lot, but I understood nothing. Some of these Chilean accents are impossible. Lots of people are staring at my bashed up face lol. Maybe I will be more scary than the horror film tonight. Its possible. Good to catch this up while its fresh. Ok just as I wrote that the internet place shut and I had to change to finish this. Will wrap this tonight and write the other one tomorrow while buying a new notebook and pen and maybe a small bag, though not sure what for. Apparently someone rang my Colombian friend and told him they have my bag in Vicuna. Damn it. Think I won't bother going back but will mull over it. I hate having a mashed face in a pretty town. Did not go to the horror either. Would have been a waste of money. Ok. The Colombian, me and the Dutch girls went to get ice cream and coffee and then came back to the hostel and crashed completely exhausted.
The next day I don't have any memory of what I did. I think I went to sort out the bank on this day maybe. Spurs went through 4-0 against Peterborough in the cup. Man U were knocked out by Leeds and then we were drawn against Leeds in the fourth round. Thank God they knocked Man U out. It would have been the third year in a row we played them in the fourth round and they are the only team to have beaten us in a domestic cup in the last 3 years. Trouble is, they beat us in every cup. Maybe we might win the FA Cup this year. Liverpool game has been called off this week due to ice. Pussies. I slept all through the afternoon to recover and then we went out to a salsa club again. Not more fucking salsa. We had gone to the main club in town to see a famous Chilean band, but in the end the queue was huge. Ah I had got dinner with an Aussie guy and we were reminiscing over our relationships in Colombia and Brazil respectively and how good the last one was. The salsa club really bored me to tears after an hour, but I stayed until around 4am.
I was designing the bus tour at this point. I think when I get back to Europe in 2012 I will buy a bus, decorate and paint it and then take it on a massive tour across Europe and maybe parts of Africa as well. Should be fun. Have been recruiting. On the sunday I got the last ticket back to Santiago for the evening and then went and watched Zombieland. Quite a lot of fun. As fun as the trailer suggests it would be. Then I grabbed a bus that was delayed because someone or something threw a rock at the window and it shattered so some passengers had to change buses. We got in late and I ended up staying in some old shithole of a place near the terminal for $20 because Lucciana was staying with her parents. Next up birthday, stars and getting beaten up.
Ok I took a bus from Iquique and came to Antofagasta. There I stayed in the bus station, paid for a bus to Santiago and killed time chatting with an Argentine dude. Spanglish I believe it was. I am now very much speaking more Spanish than English in general and can only help my development even if all my dictionary and books are now missing. I am not bitter at all. Nope. Just like Wenger. Got the bus and took a second night bus in a row. Slept at least 14 our of the 17 hours and watched part of some film. Can't remember what it was. I don't think yo or I will lose sleep over that one. Although technically I did as I watched it. Eventually my marathon busathon brought me to Santiago. I had not bothered to look around Antofagasta as my main rucksack has broken. This means the metal rods stick out the top and break my back rather than supporting it. Its only got to last about 5-6 weeks more though and then I will be in Buenos Aires. The time has come to work. Rumour has it that this work thing happens to people who need money. That they make you do stuff and you lose your freedom. Sounds terrifying. Maybe I will kill it if I see it. I may even have come across it some time in my past.
I got into Santiago at about 7am. Breakfast and grab Lucciana's number off the internet. Of course if this was any other capital, but Chile does not believe life starts before 10am or so, so I was stranded in Barrio Brazil twiddling my thumbs. As places for this activity go, Santiago is not a bad one. Has a lot of places like London. Especially New York street (financial centre) which is a spit for Bank. I liked the city. Noone who lives there likes it. At least they don't beat you up for your bag, but then my current landlady reckons the little shits were from Santiago. Hmm its also the only capital city I can think of that is cheaper to buy stuff than any of the other parts of the country. Usually its the most expensive. I could live in this city. Eventually I met Lucciana and it was cool as it was almost two years since she had stayed with me in London. I was looking forward to this, but I was to be frustrated. I think the 29th and 30th december have been solely designed to piss me off. I fucking hate those dates. Anyway she had two Swedes staying with her and I think my opening line of Chile being much more cultural and better than Peru and Bolivia did not go down well with them. Ah damn it. Scandinavian, vegetarian, hippyistic (does this need another y? I think I invented it) socialists. I have always got on cracking with them. Also they had typical northern european cold personalities and I talk like talkie toaster in speed. This was not great. The atmosphere was a little awkward and we went out for drinks and food in the evening. Hmm. I kept trying to kick something into life, but I figured they had mae their judgment on me from the opening statement. My mouth is always going to walk me into problems. I have one of the most divisive personalities around. People either really like me or hate me. Chances are if you are reading this you like me as you have my facebook lol, but if it makes it into a book I am sure I will have facebook hate groups up in Ecuador at the very least. Scratch that. They will probably use the next entry as a template for kicking the shit out of me. Anyway I went to sleep and at some point in the night a powow was called with the others. The Swedes did not want to spend new year with me. Excellent. This left the plans in good fettle. Shit. This was the night of the 29th/30th. For those with long memories that was the same date that I lost my passport in Dominican Republic last year. I think for safety measures I will not go out next year on these dates. I still have hope that someone takes up the fatwa offer and kills these dates. Apparently a German friend told me that the Mayans did not have names for the last 5 days of the year and thought they were bad luck. Damn it. I knew I should not attack Guatemala so much. If I promise to say its the best country in the world, will the Mayan gods stop fucking me in the arse on these dates. I do love Tikal. Best ruins in the Americas and thats the honest truth.
Ok well being the mature man I have become and being diplomatic (about time) I said I would pull out and find something else and they should all go to Valparaiso together. In reality it made most sense, but that day walking in town I was feeling bitter, angry and a little upset as I come all the way to see Lucciana and can't see her because some Swedes can't find some middle ground. Dammit. Yeah lets whack on some Corrs. Been awhile. Maybe they can stop my nose leaking. I went to search accomodation for Valparaiso. Yep Valparaiso. The place lonely planet tells everyone to go. I am there on the 30th without accomodation. This was going to be fun. I found some for the 30th and the 1st in the same hostel. $20 for a night. They want $80 for new year. Fuck that. I can rumba all night and then limp back in at midday to check in for thefirst. Cunning eh. I even found a couchsurfer to drop my stuff for new years eve in Vina del Mar and they had a party on. Excellent. Problem solved, except for a bus. What's this? An e-mail from my dad. Nationwide want me to repay 900 pounds of my overdraft in 19 days. WTF. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Motherfuckers. I hate this date. They expect me to magic that out of my arse when I am not working. This was not resolved until 4 days later and hung over me for new year but I will take it on now to get it out of the way. The lazy shits took the whole weekend off. I phoned them and said why are you removing it. They said no money was being paid in. I informed them that no money had gone in for 18 months and they had no problem when they had 13,000 pounds of my savings but now it was overdrawn for 2 months they want the money back. I said they knew I was travelling for 18 months and there was one month left. They said it did not matter. I said ok lets set up a wind down payment. Yes I can do that but first I have to default, even though penalty interest is the same as legal. So basically al it does is fuck my credit rating and possibly damage my credit card limit (on which I am currently travelling). It was not possible for them to change it without default. That must be bollocks as I had the power to renegotiate facilities up to 10,000 pounds as a lowly grunt in corporate banking. Arseholes. I said if you fuck my credit rating why should I pay them. They said they would send debt collectors. I said to Argentina. Excellent. Their flights would be more than the debt and do they need a place to stay. They said I would have to pay when I come back. I said excellent. Thats in 10 years. Keep on waiting boys. That scared the shit out of him. Fun for me though. After playing brinksmanship I would have to phone again the next day to speak to collections or some other bunch of idiots. Then I rang all my family and my dad told me my uncle would cover it and I would have to pay him back as he thought it unfair it ws pulled on me with no warning. Excellent news. I was very grateful and also thinking maybe I should not have threatened the bank now that it will be paid. I hate nationwide sometimes but they are still cheap. Probably means I won't use them to bank with while working though as I don't trust them now. The bastards may steal my money out from under me by adjusting limits.
Anyway enough of these two dates. Evil though they are. I went off to the national history museum. Only I didn't, because I had read the map wrong and I ended up at the natural history museum. I just used their toilet and left. I have seen these museums before and the plastic whale was not a good start. Nice grounds though. Eventually I went for a wander through town and found the national history museum. Nice enough place. I could not be bothered with the pre-Colombian one. The art is always crappy and too religious. I still agree with Mark Twain on that. I wanted to search out stuff on the War of the Pacific. I expected a whole room, but on the first pass missed the whole one photo they have on the war. Way to belittle Peru and Bolivia, but then maybe they are just not very proud of it. I headed back. Ah yeah I had done my washing the day before and wandered all around Lucciana's apartment in just my shorts. Maybe that put off the Swedes. Grabbed my stuff and shot off to Valparaiso. I limped in late and found my hostel after a long walk. It is kind of Bohemian. I quite like there and Vina del Mar. Vina is probably the slightly cleaner cut of the two. It wa full of French and French Canadians so we were chatting in Spanish as normal. They were playing drinking games. I miss the camaraderie of those but its not the same if you are on coke. I taught them a few. They must have thought it weird that the guy who does not drink knew so many drinking games. I ended up talking philosophy an EU politics with a French dude until about 4.30am. Stupid for the 30th december but fun anyway. I love the intellectual edge to French culture and should be fun when I am living there eventually. Still we lost lot of sleep and I had to leave by midday.
I limped up in the morning and went and met a few couchsurfers to take a city tour. Our guide took us all over the city and we even took the famous 'elevators' (I reckon they are mini funiculars, but hey elevator is not a real word in England so make it what you want). There are a lot of multicoloured buildings, strange architecture and sweeping sea vistas. There was also a Brazilian and an American southerner. Excellent. Then we met some Spaniards and they have the same sense of weirdness as the French that an Englishman can speak Spanish. It happens. Will be good for when I am Prime Minister though as can address a few European countries in their own language. I think my Spanish is approaching Francois's French (in terms of speaking being way better than writing). Damn it can smell iron in my nose. I suppose at least its good that I can smell. I took the train to Vina (I don't care if its more expensive. Trains are better and you don't get them often). I am even thinking of going south from Santiago by train just because I can. That's why Chile is cool. I met the group of couchsurfers sortof. There was a big group of people standing around with rucksacks. I assumed it was them, but said nothing as they could be from the other bus. They thought I must be the odd Englishman but noone said anything for 10 minutes. Really awakward. Eventually an Italian doctor put us out of our misery and we all went to her place. The Chileans thought my accent and speed was funny, because I speak Spanish so fast. Then again I speak English fast and I think they have a weird accent. So we are even. There was an Argentine girl travelling with a Yank, the Italian, a German and 3 Chileans. Then we met a massive group of people and everyone got massacred. Ah yeah the Chilean girl has a phenomenal house in Vina and a giant white dog. He looks like a polar bear and I called him orso polar all the time. Then he tried to hump me. I think he could have had me if he really wanted. He was pretty big. Tease. We watched the fireworks down by the main square. Cool but did not have the big Chilean flag firework that had been rumoured. Ah I miss bits without the diary. Its like a jump cut. I remembered this stunning girl arriving and thinking who is she, then I realised it was the Argentine after she had changed. That ha to be the most drastic transofrmation I have seen. Very impressive without your home kit on the road. Everyone was plastered. Guido was being very Italian with the women, the Yankee Scott was so plastered he danced off somewhere on his own and lost his bag. The German scuttled off with one of the Chileans and we found them in bed together later. We had a huge 2m viking Dane with us. He was like a blonde lighthouse in the crowd. There was an Aussie who probably hooked up with the host. We lost them. Then Mayra was upset and crying as Scott was to look after her and this was the first time out of her country. She hated drunk people, but was a little drunk. This was a night of contradictions and wading through it sober is always fun. I promised to lok after Mayra and then she wanted to slap Scott in the face. I ended up looking after all the things as everyone else was battered. I got myself a Lenny Kravitz wig. That drew loads of attention. I got the number of a cute Chilean then lost it later on when I lost my phone. Shit. Everyone scattered and we ended up in a fucking salsa club. Mayra wanted to ring Argentina so we went looking for phones. Did not find one. Then she did not want to dance close, but was suddenly grinding me. Then we kissed and then she did not want to be treated like a slut, so I backed off and then she wa grinding me again. Then she was off somewhere else and the Chilean, Guido and Scott were dancing between us. Everytime we got close someone spun us away. It was like that scene from Grease (much as I hate that film to get a mention in my blog). Looks like I am still typing so I will go see Paranormal Activity. Or maybe I should just sleep. This was a demanding night. So much drama. Then Guido started groping the barmaids and when they resisted told them to fuck themselves so he was thrown out. He was back again soon after and dancing with Mayra, which rattled me a bit. Nevermind. We eventually left with more drama. We took a bus back and I suggested we get lunch the day after. Mayra said yes and then when we made it back and the Chilean broke into the house she went on a massive rant about not being touched and not wanting lunch etc. Ok. Enough. I had lost my phone again. I grabbed my bag, left and set off to hike the 8km back along the coast to Valparaiso with my mp3 player. I figured I would not see them again. The walk back was cool and I did the whole thing with my Kravitz wig. I kept that. Oh shit no I didn't as I think it was in the bag. Or maybe its not. Hmm will look into that. Anyway got loads of attention and it was class. Lots of fun. Took me ages I think and then eventually I got to the hostel and went in for free internet and to crash. Met a cool Chilean and a Colombian dude in the lobby and we chatted with a German girl. I should have slept, but instead went with them and two Dutch girls to the beach over in Vina Del Mar.
I am still no beach man and apparently the sea is so cold you freeze your nuts off. I did not experiment. Instead I spent 200 years attempting to buy some empanadas. Eventually when they did come they were very big. An empanada here would be a pastel in Colombia. Some dude talked to me a lot, but I understood nothing. Some of these Chilean accents are impossible. Lots of people are staring at my bashed up face lol. Maybe I will be more scary than the horror film tonight. Its possible. Good to catch this up while its fresh. Ok just as I wrote that the internet place shut and I had to change to finish this. Will wrap this tonight and write the other one tomorrow while buying a new notebook and pen and maybe a small bag, though not sure what for. Apparently someone rang my Colombian friend and told him they have my bag in Vicuna. Damn it. Think I won't bother going back but will mull over it. I hate having a mashed face in a pretty town. Did not go to the horror either. Would have been a waste of money. Ok. The Colombian, me and the Dutch girls went to get ice cream and coffee and then came back to the hostel and crashed completely exhausted.
The next day I don't have any memory of what I did. I think I went to sort out the bank on this day maybe. Spurs went through 4-0 against Peterborough in the cup. Man U were knocked out by Leeds and then we were drawn against Leeds in the fourth round. Thank God they knocked Man U out. It would have been the third year in a row we played them in the fourth round and they are the only team to have beaten us in a domestic cup in the last 3 years. Trouble is, they beat us in every cup. Maybe we might win the FA Cup this year. Liverpool game has been called off this week due to ice. Pussies. I slept all through the afternoon to recover and then we went out to a salsa club again. Not more fucking salsa. We had gone to the main club in town to see a famous Chilean band, but in the end the queue was huge. Ah I had got dinner with an Aussie guy and we were reminiscing over our relationships in Colombia and Brazil respectively and how good the last one was. The salsa club really bored me to tears after an hour, but I stayed until around 4am.
I was designing the bus tour at this point. I think when I get back to Europe in 2012 I will buy a bus, decorate and paint it and then take it on a massive tour across Europe and maybe parts of Africa as well. Should be fun. Have been recruiting. On the sunday I got the last ticket back to Santiago for the evening and then went and watched Zombieland. Quite a lot of fun. As fun as the trailer suggests it would be. Then I grabbed a bus that was delayed because someone or something threw a rock at the window and it shattered so some passengers had to change buses. We got in late and I ended up staying in some old shithole of a place near the terminal for $20 because Lucciana was staying with her parents. Next up birthday, stars and getting beaten up.
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