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.