goodbye argentina, hello chile!

Feb. 2

things i learned:

1. you sleep a lot better when you don't think you will be stabbed at night by a creepy old man or that the old man will just drop dead.

2. when selling you the bus ticket to santiago, no one tells you how excrutiatingly painful customs is.

xavier and i have had a lovely 3 hours enjoying the pretty views, snoozing and writing in our journals. we see the chilean flag in the distance and know we have reached the border. exciting? NO. we must have sat in our bus for 2 hours so that we could stand in line for another 2.

3. do not leave the peels or core of fruit you know you can not take into a country(and therefore scarfed down) in a bag on your seat when at customs. they will find your bag and single you out in front of all the customs officers and your fellow travellers. it is like being picked on in grade school...except worse because you can be arrested.

4. do not be fooled into thinking that dried fruit is acceptable either. they will find your dried fruit in your luggage that you put under the bus and single you out in front of all the customs officers and your fellow travellers. embarrassed is an understatement when this happens 2 seconds after already happening.

5. appreciate the beauty of the andes that surround you as you travel through chile.

6. know when your flights are.

as we roll into santiago, thinking we have like 3 hours to get all of our errands done before we leave for punta arenas...we happen to check our itinerary and realize that we actually have 2 nights in santiago. it was a relief to see that we were smarter than we thought. but not so relieving that we had been such idiots and forgot when we were actually leaving.

7. figure out why your ATM card works where your traveling partner will live but his doesn't...and yours doesn't where you will live and his does.

8. be thankful for the metro tickets given to you by a couple in Mendoza.

we rode the metro using the free metro tickets and got off at the bella vistas stop and found ourselves at the entrance of the most beautiful hostel: Andes Hostel. it was clean, safe, and such a treat. the fact that i trusted them enough to use their towel says something right there.

9. treat yourself to a nice dinner if you havent eaten all day because you have no chilean pesos and your remaining food gets confiscated at customs.

10. cover your eyes when a young boy is beaten quite violently because he stole a mans wallet. and don't be alarmed if onlookers join in.

11. be cautious of going out with a chilean on your first night in santiago.

we went out with a chilean and an australian from the hostel and ended up walking far to far...and finding ouselves in a super sketchy area. the chilean was totally excited about taking us there but i got so freaked out that i made everyone leave soon after we got there. once my spanish gets better i am sure i will be more confident...but for now, i did not like getting eye raped everywhere and having homeless people offering me god knows what.