Santiago
I arrived in Santiago by bus an early Saturday morning. I did not really have plans for what to do in the city, but it was a convenient stop to move on from, and I didn’t think I could travel through Chile without visiting Santiago.
The 10-hour bus ride from Valdivia went well and felt like a short trip compared to the night tours in Argentina taking just under 20 hours. It was almost the same distance, but the roads in Chile are far better and there were far fewer stops.
It was actually a little strange to get out of the bus as the parking lot looked completely as the one I had left the night before. In Chile there are no common bus terminals. Each bus company has their own area, and they are apparently in some cases built from the same plans. All the companies are placed next to each other, but if you are leaving from as large a terminal as the one in Santiago, you should arrive early. It may take some time to find the right bus company and the right bus.
Arriving did not create any problems and there were many taxis waiting outside so I was quickly on my way to my place of residence for the next few days. This time I had rented an apartment in a large apartment complex close to the old town. I could not get access so early in the day, so I left my luggage and went out to find some breakfast. It was easy, everything was open this morning, and after my breakfast there were also lots of people in the streets and at Plaza de Armas. There square is probably the original city center when the town was founded, and where you find many beautiful houses from the colonial era. I immediately liked the city and was looking forward to seeing more, I had picked up some brochures at a tourist office so I could make plans for the next few days.
Sunday morning I went roughly the same way with the same goal to have some breakfast. I had not been shopping for food, assuming it would be as easy as the day before to find a place. Now the situation was completely different though. Everything was closed and there were no people. I reached Plaza de Armas, which the day before had been filled with people, now almost empty. It was also where I should not have been. I became a goal for the trick thieves. I was, as written in a previous post, not at all aware, that the sweet lady who tried to help me was cheating me.
Maybe the missing morning coffee !!
It was a bad experience, and when I left the police station, I had nothing. No money, no city map and nothing to drink. I knew where I was and thought I could easily find my way back to the apartment. Unfortunately I went the wrong way. I found out later a big church on a corner had failed me.
A river runs through the city, so you never get lost completely. I knew, I was close, but it was a bit uncomfortable and unusual to walk around completely empty-handed. It was about 1p.m. Hot and I had still not had any coffee or breakfast. Well I found my way back – of course, and at the same time, I found out that on the back of the building where I stayed, there was both a large supermarket and ATMs. I got a new key to the apartment, and luckily I still had a credit card and my passport. When I had put my thoughts together, I went down to do some shopping and get some money.
The rest of the day, I used to find receipts on my computer for the insurance claims.
All my plans from the day before were just postponed one day OR they did actually get postponed for two days, because on Monday I just did not want to go anywhere. It took another day to come to terms with the experience and the loss of my bags and my camera. But I recovered and the next few days I did some sightseeing in the city, bought a new camera and went on a trip to the Andes.
potes from Plaza the areas and the Presidential Palace where Allende shot himself
Trip to the mountains
I had a nice view from my apartment, but the city was covered with smog – I thought. I had read that during vinter the city is often hit by smog, but it should not in so in the summer month. It turned out that it was actually smoke. South of Santiago, there were many forest fires, and since the city is in a valley between several mountain ranges, the smoke stays in the city. I could only get a glimpse of the mountains and see the top of some skyscrapers, so I was happy to get out of town for a day.
The smoke disappeared as soon as we moved up through the first of 29 hairpin turns and we could clearly see the mountains. We visited the Valle Nevado ski resort at 2500 m altitude (7,500 ft.), Where there year round is a colony of condos. There were many and they appeared right in front of us all day. They spent a lot of time on one of the rooftops, so there were great opportunities to study them and for me to practice with my new camera. As always, the recommendation when you get to the heights – remember to drink water, so I walked around with my camera without a bag and with water in a plastic bag. It was not durable, so when we got back to Santiago, I got off at a big shopping center and bought a pair of bags.
Home from here was by taxi, and my guide had instructed me to pay close attention to taxi drivers at the mall, as they were known to cheat their customers.
Before starting, I then of course asked about the price and was told that it was after taximeter, which was fine. Although the taxi driver talked a lot all the way, I kept an eye on the taximeter, and when we stopped, I knew almost exactly the amount. Fortunately, for the driver turned off the engine and the taxi meter as soon as we stopped. The price was just under 7,000 pesos (app. 9 €). I gave him 10,000 pesos and asked what the taxi meter said. Here to my surprise the answer was 100,000 and a story that we had ben going on the freeway.
I immediately regretted that I had given him the 10,000. Protested and said that I knew it was max 7,000, and reminded him that he, before we started, had referred to the taximeter. He kept going on, so I let him have the 10,000 and asked him to get the police, if he wanted more money. He had also been so clever to not drop me off right outside my door, claiming that there was a lot of traffic in the street.
Too bad and sad for Chile that they have so many cheaters.
In the evening I went to a restaurant to meet some friends. I did not want any more bad experiences in Santiago, so before I left, I asked the receptionist to agree on a price with my taxi driver. He was actually a nice guy but you never know. It was probably a good thing, I was with friends that evening. Ii gave me a chance to talk about all my bad experiences in Santiago. The friends made sure I got home safe and the following day I went to Valparaiso.
We spend the evening in a very interesting restaurant – Ocean Pacific – designed as a ship. There were many rooms of different size, and decorated with different maritime items standing and hanging everywhere in the each room. It can not be described. It must be seen.
Summary
I did not have any plans when I arrived but I had not really seen the city. i have mentioned my bad experiences but I did also meet a lot of nice and very friendly people in the city.
I only had bookings for the trip to Valparaiso, so I decided to think about it for a few days before planning for either a few more days in the Santiago or going directly to Mendoza in Argentina.
Link to Santiago Photos
This entry was posted in Chile, Destinations, Santiago, South America
