Wednesday, October 28, 1998
At least one good thing can be said for Chile... It's transit system is remarkable. The buses, even on an 18 hour journey, are comfortable. They serve tea or coffee and have soft drinks on board. The bathrooms are clean, operational, and don't smell as bad as you'd expect. They have videos -- real videos (well, almost real... they seem to show a lot of Van Damne and Stallone movies). They have seats with cushions. And best of all, they have something known as Velocity Control -- a big buzzer that goes off every single time the driver hits more than 100 km/hour. Wow! I would guess that Greyhound in the US could take a few pointers from the companies in Chile. What a pleasure!
Except for the insistent buzzing of the velocimeter, I really had a great time on the bus. Dave lent me a book (I've been all out of reading material for over 3 weeks -- maybe that's why I'm depressed...) I got some rest. I watched the rolling scenery and thought about what I would be doing for the next 5 weeks. I tried not to think about January and Australia or December in California.
At one of our stops, we had a beer at a little seaside joint in Antofagasta. There we met a Swedish guy that you just have to love to hate. He's BICYCLING from Santiago to Columbia -- 8 months. He looked like Adonis, was extremely friendly, was expert this and expert that, and was an accomplished traveller and writer. His girlfriend probably looks like Cindy Crawford. This is not the guy to meet when you're feeling particularly down on yourself for whatever reason... At least I was taller by a good three inches!
Thursday, October 29, 1998
We arrived in La Serena, a small resort town about 8 hours North of Santiago, at around noon. We quickly checked into a hotel, took a quick shower, and headed out to see the city. It's a very likably city, I suppose. The beaches were beautiful and we took the opportunity to do a little sunbathing after lunch. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any action in town during the evening. Hell, it was hard enough to find an open restaurant! Seems that things only really rock and roll there during the weekends and the summer season of December and January.
Friday, October 30, 1998
Dave and Ian left for Santiago early in the morning and selfishly took all of their books with them. I decided to stick around for the weekend, get a really nice cabana right on the beach, and chill out. I wanted a few days to think. I wanted life to be easy. La Serena seemed like a nice serene place to do just that.
My cabana was a three room deal, cable TV, excellent bathroom, nice sundeck right on the beach, and a fridge. I stocked the fridge from the local grocery store with the basics -- beer, the best bottle of Chilean wine I could find, and some snack food. I still, unfortunately, had no reading material. So, I watched a lot of movies, ESPN, CNN, and wrote quite a bit. I walked on the beach almost four hours as well.
When I got back, I decided to try to get out of the funk and into the groove. It was Friday night, and I was ready to disco. At midnight, I took off for Cocodrilo Disco. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a disaster as well -- I happened to choose the only 16 and under disco in La Serena and I didn't find out about it until I had already paid the huge cover charge they probably only charge gringos (everyone else in line seemed to have a free pass of some sort...)
Anyway, I hung out and listened and watched the teenyboppers for a few hours. I tried my best to approach it as "research" for the book I probably will never write. I actually got hit on a few times by some pretty cute girls, but they were girls.
I checked out another place as well and it was much better. Kamanga is excellent -- salsa music, older crowd, and good drink prices. Unfortunately, they had a huge cover charge as well. Oh well, my cabana is $85 a night, so whats another $10 right? Anyway, I checked it out for a few hours and even danced to a few songs. I happened to meet a really nice guy, Javier, and I was really shocked when he invited me to a party at his house for Halloween. I accepted, of course, and then left for the cabana and remote control.
Saturday, October 31, 1998
Today I spent almost all day just walking the beach. I took a few hours to arrange the rest of my trip -- plane tickets to Equador, boat journey south to Patagonia, etc -- and that seemed to cheer me up. I've got a really easy month left in South America.
Anyway, Javier called my room at around 8 and confirmed I would be coming. I took a taxi to his nice house and was thrilled to see little kids running around the neighborhood in Halloween costumes! They all stopped at Javier's house and I did my best to play with as many as possible. Javier's two kids, 6 year old girl and 2 year old boy, were adorable. His friends, all very well spoken (English!) and professional, brought over their kids as well. We had a really nice talk.
Around one, the five guys at the party ditched all the wives and girls and left for Kamanga. I was in much better spirits thanks to the spirits and danced nearly all night long with "friends" of Javier and the rest of the guys. Upon further investigation, I learned that it is almost 100% certain that married guys under the age of 35 have several mistresses and girlfriends. My new friends were no exception. I got back to the cabana at around 6am.
Sunday, November 1, 1998
I way overslept my 12 oclock check out time. So, I guess I had no choice but to stay another day in La Serena. It wasn't the worst thing that could happen to me. I even got to watch American football on ESPN! I made a mock bet with myself, and true to my sport betting form, I lost. Losing the bet meant that I would stay in Valpariso the next few days instead of luxurios Vina del Mar...