HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting into a big city – just for a few days
BUMMER OF THE DAY: The seating wars have started with new tour starting in 3 days
WORD OF THE DAY: hotellibertador – free Wi-Fi password
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 469KM
A ‘small’ travel day today with only 469KM to Santiago. 5-6 hours is a good day.
It’s the last day of tour for 3 of our peeps after 41 days for Omar and Malar and 55 days for Seamus. It was time for them to leave and head back home (suckers) and officially the tour finished this afternoon. We have 9 new people joining the tour on Sunday for the next section of 42 days to Rio. So we have 9 veterans and 9 newbies – an even balance and a bigger group. So needless to say the dreaded ‘seating’ question has reared its ugly head. Even though the truck can hold 36, there are enough seats to have 16 people have their own seats, and yes you do the math there are 18 of us. So Mark thought he was doing the right thing by telling us this morning that we all had to clear our seats and that we had to all move for the next section of the trip. Well you could imagine the look on our faces of the original 9 that we had to give up ‘our’ seats. None of us were happy about this of course! So I was elected to have a ‘word’ with Mark about this situation later in the day. Okay, so the mentality of the ‘old timers’ were we were here first, we get to pick and there are a few people who are adamant that they will not be sharing. Well I think that is a little naïve, especially from Rio on as we have 20 new people joining. We can say that as we were first here, of course. If I was a newbie that had paid just as good money for a trip, why should I be penalized with a shitty seat or having to share with another newbie just because they aren’t on tour as long as others. I would be pissed and this is what Mark was trying to avoid. No matter if you are on a day trip, a coach, a bus or a truck there are always seating issues and there is just no easy way to sort it all out fairly. I think people sometimes forget to have a seat to yourself is a luxury and not a standard thing, we have just had it good for so long it is tough to go back. My main issue is my overhead space, I need to do some serious reshuffling as I have taken it up for 4 people, but this is easy fixed, well to an extent. The whole thing sucks and it can make and break trips, all because of where you sit. It is crazy…… We’ll see what Mark says this afternoon. Stay tuned for the ‘seating saga’.
Kate and I were talking the other day and on this trip we get all the major ‘holidays’ and events of a calendar. We had Christmas and New Year already. We have Australia Day, Valentine’s Day, Easter and Anzac Day all to come up with the only thing missing are our birthdays which mine is in November and Kate’s is in September. Maybe we could have mock birthdays just have them included in our 6 month South American Odyssey! Any excuse for a partay!!!!
I have also sold the idea to Kate to fly and join me in Buenos Airies at the end of the month. I am leaving the group on the 24th of January and flying from Ushuaia to BA to get an early start on my Brazil visa. So I am in BA for a total of 10 nights. 6 of them on my own and then the group are there for 4 nights. It is literally a 5 day drive from Ushuaia to BA, so we aren’t missing too much and the lure of BA for Kate was just too much, so I now have a travel buddy for the extra nights. It’s also great news as I would have been in BA for Australia Day on my own and now I will have a fellow Aussie to share it with. We’ll have to Google Aussie bars in BA and go and have a few drinks in honor of our wonderful country. You fellow Aussies need to appreciate the lifestyle and opportunities we have back home. We have enough jobs for people; we have equality, a good life and plenty of food and water (now), well for majority of the population. I’m not saying we don’t have our issues but weighing it all up we really are a lucky country. Make the most of it, there are people all over this world that would give a small fortune, loved ones and goodness knows what else to have the opportunities we have. Had a bad day at work? Be thankful you have a job. Got a bill in the mail? Be glad you have money to pay for it. Got a small cold? Be thankful you have access to a doctor and drugs. Worried about your weight. Be thankful you have had enough food to eat. Got relationship problems – suck it up, that happens worldwide, no matter where or what country you are in. Toughen up people…. Things could always be a lot worse! Australia is an amazing place to live – never forget that.
After a morning stop at a servo, where I managed to purchase these chocolate looking biscuits that happen to taste exactly like Arnotts Mint Slices we had a lunch stop at 12.30pm to then have our final push into Santiago. Our hotel is located on one of the main streets of the city, so it was going to be a ‘get off the truck quick’ stop. Malar, Omar and Seamus had all their stuff at the ready for the push off once we arrived. We won’t be seeing Rosita again for another 3 days, and as requested we all took our stuff off our seats in preparation for the newbies joining us on Sunday. I did leave my Elmo and Llama that I had bought in the seat pocket, just to let people know that I ‘had’ been sitting there. My theory is I am happy to share with someone as long as I could keep the same seat, or at least one with a window. That is the ‘dog’ coming out of me wanting to stick my head out the window all the time. But of course I would be rotating with my seat buddy on the window seat. I think this is a happy and good compromise on my behalf. I also need to get used to it as I have my boyfriend, yes people, I have a new man in my life and he is joining me in Rio for 7 weeks of my Odyssey through to Venezuela, so I will be sharing a seat with him on the next next section anyways, so I might as well start on this section.
So I hear you gasp with Surprise? Shock? Stunned? Yes I have a new man and his name is Zeme. He is Ethiopian and the sweetest guy you will ever meet. Well according to me, but I am not biased at all. So he is flying into Rio on the 16th February and will be travelling with me for 7 weeks till we get to Caracas in early April. This will definitely ‘make or break’ any relationship but I just know we will ‘make it’ and I can’t wait for him to get here. Just ask Kate, I have been counting down the ‘sleeps’ from day 70 and today there are only 40 left to go. For those of you back in Oz, all going to plan, Z will be joining me for 2 of my 4 weeks at home to meet everyone before we head back to Ethiopia where I will be starting my new life. I am so excited at the prospect, the challenge of a new culture and learning a new language and making a place for myself and Zeme. Anyone know Amharic? Zeme will be bringing with him an English-Amharic dictionary and I will be getting language lessons on the truck. There will be no better way to wile away hours and hours on the truck than learning a new language. I had hoped to learn Spanish while travelling, but I am thinking Amharic will be more useful in my new home. So that is the news I have been holding back, and I have been dying to tell you all, but I wanted to make sure it was the right time and with only 4 weeks till Zeme joins me, I think this was a good time to introduce him to you. You guys will LOVE him. I know what you are all thinking…what a lucky man he is, I know – but he is only human right…….
So with that said we rolled into Santiago just after 3pm. Santiago is a big city and most cities are just that, a large city with traffic and people everywhere. I agree with this, but Santiago is also a beautiful city, with its amazing architecture and pedestrian shopping area’s it just has a great vibe to the place.
Santiago, also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile. It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of 520 m above sea level. Although Santiago is the capital, legislative bodies meet in the coastal town of Valparaíso, 120 km to the west.
Chile's steady economic growth has transformed Santiago into one of Latin America's most modern metropolitan areas, with extensive suburban development, dozens of shopping centers, and impressive high-rise architecture. It has a very modern transport infrastructure, including the steadily growing underground, the Santiago Metro, an effort at modernizing public bus transport and a free flow toll-based ring road and inner city highway system, part of which is tunneled underneath a large section of the city's main river Mapocho connecting the Eastern and Western end of the city in a 25-minute drive.
After checking into the hotel we met back in the lobby 30 minutes later for our orientation tour of the city. Mark showed us the major shopping areas and then we walked the city for the next 40 minutes checking out the main buildings of the city. It really is beautiful. I like Santiago. I have been here before, but it was 10 years ago and we were here in winter, so it looked a lot sadder and colder when I was last here. Today the sun high in the sky and it was a toasty 32C, at 4pm!!! We need to make the most of the warmer weather as I think it is going to get a little colder as we head further south to Bariloche and Ushuaia.
We had a few free hours after the walk before dinner, so we headed back to the hotel to make the most of the free and fast Wi-Fi. I had some blogs to upload and I hadn’t loaded any photos since New Year’s Eve. The Wi-Fi was only accessible on level 2 of the hotel, which was actually good, as they had a lounge area all set up and a flat screen TV, so it was a lot more sociable than sitting in our rooms and nerding up on our own! So uploading and tagging was my mission for the next 1.5 hours and I got a lot done and we had a lot of laughs as we relooked over the New Year’s Eve photos. It was really a good night; even looking at all those jelly shots again was do-able without having a gagging reflex!! To funny!!
Dinner was at an Italian restaurant across the road from the hotel and it was some of the best pasta I have had so far. This was also where I hit Mark up on the ‘hot seat’ issue. I had Paul and Liz as my backup team, so it didn’t look like this was a one woman show, and we let Mark know that we were happy with our seating arrangements and did we really have to move. Well I was waiting for the backup from my crew, and you can imagine my horror, when Paul had changed his opinion and I was left standing like a goose hanging out to dry……. Paul what are you doing? In his defence we had only found out the group had grown from 6 to 9 that afternoon, so he had changed his mind based on that information, and he backed me up, a little, but Paul……… bad form (this is all in jest-but still…) So we talked about it all and we left it as an open topic with nothing resolved on how we go about the seating on Sunday. I guess we are both hoping it will just ‘work’ itself out on the morning. But having been a newbie, already joining an established tour, you need guidance on where people are already sitting as you don’t want to step on anybody’s toes, so they will be looking to us anyway. It is a real hot topic and we will just have to see how it all pans out on Sunday. God damn ‘hot seat’ talk.
So this was the last meal with Malar, Seamus and Omar. We are going to miss you guys so much. A few words on the departing suckers..um I mean friends……
Malar-who are we going to blame now when things go wrong? I hope you don’t mind but we are still going to blame you even though you won’t be here anymore. So if your ears are burning, then you know it’s your pals in South America having a say.
Seamus- who can I now give shit to and know I will get it back just as hard? How can I learn to be an Irish woman ‘wannabe’ now that my master has left? I’ll just have to rely on my shamrock socks again now. Who else can call me a dog and pant like one and get away with it? Your upfront take no shit attitude will be missed, even if you won’t miss us….
Omar- My fellow ‘SPIRIT OF THE TURTLE’. First Nic and now you have left. I will keep the spirit alive in honor of you both. Your smiley easy going personality will be missed. Even your ‘blonde’ comments and gullibility at times will be extremely missed. ‘Did you guys do something to my tent’ will always be a classic in my books from Salta. Take care buddy..xx
So the next 2 days are free days for us in Santiago. There are still 5 of us that need to get a Paraguay visa, so this is the first thing on the list for tomorrow, along with Mark we will be heading to the Consulate first thing in the morning. Damn these visa’s, they are such a pain. I am just glad I am not the only one that needs to get this one, as it has seemed quite elusive with some of the guys trying to get it in Quito and we tried in La Paz, Santiago is our second last stop with BA the last possible place we can get it before getting to the country itself. Fingers crossed we get them in our passport tomorrow.
So good night from Santiago, from a comfy bed, with a proper pillow and the noise of the traffic blaring past our hotel from an open window. It is so hot in the rooms we have had to open the windows, which gives an awesome air flow, but then the traffic 8 floors below sound like they are driving right outside our window. But that all aside, it is nice to be in a bed for 3 nights!
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