Thursday, November 5, 1998
The 2 hour bus ride from Valpariso to Santiago goes through really scenic wine country. There are grapevines everywhere and it reminded me a lot of the wine country in Northern California. The roads were excellent 4 lane highways.
When I first arrived in Santiago, I was immediately impressed with the size of the place. The buildings are tall, architecturally interesting, and the city just seems to sprawl. The snow-capped mountains surrounding the city loomed large on a somewhat smoggy horizon.
I checked into a central hotel, three stars, and met the only English speaking host for the hotel, Max. Max showed me to my fifth floor room, got me maps of the city, volunteered to take my laundry for me, and made me feel most welcome. His slightly gay demeanor reminded me of Northern California as well...
First order of business was to pay for my upcoming trip from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, a ship passage of almost 1000 miles through Patagonia and the Chilean fjords. The Navimag office was somewhere in Santiago. Max, every helpful, took his hand off his hip long enough to show me where and how -- take the metro, he said. I decided to walk.
After
3 hours of walking through the city on almost a direct route,
I finally found the office and paid. Santiago is BIG. More than
5 million people live in the city. The skyscrapers are immense.
But, to Santiago's credit, there are abundant parks, a beautiful
river walk (though the river has very little water and what water
it does have is hopelessly polluted), and excellent public transportation.
I happened to stroll past a building with a completely mirrored facade. I noticed that my hair was completely out of control. I needed a haircut. So, I saundered into what I thought would be a relatively exclusive salon and asked if anyone spoke English. Not a soul did. I was, I determined, forced for the first time in my life to point to a picture in one of those cheesy salon books. After a washing and scalp massage, Alejandro did a good job on me... My hair looked almost like the picture in the book, that is...
With all of my clothes in the laundry, I decided to go shopping and purchase something suitable for Chilean nightlife. It was not at difficult to find stores, but finding 36" length pants in a country full of short people is quite a chore... Eventually, I accomplished the task and headed out to a local club called "Boomerang." I ate a nice meal alone there and then turned my attention to a table of four American girls close by. They were nice enough to invite me to join them. Then, three really cheesy American guys showed up with their cellular phones, silk shirts, and lines like "shall I nudge you in the morning?" Only the girl from New York showed them any interest. I was too busy making wisecracks just over their heads to pay much attention to the girls. Eventually, the StarTac coverboys left the building and the girls left shortly thereafter.
I wasn't really tired, so I decided to check out the band upstairs and then head to another bar down the street. Babbles was having a "ladies night" and I decided to put up the cash and check it out. There were about 500 girls in there screaming at the bartenders to take it all off. I realized that I was in a male semi-strip club. The only music they played over is the cheesy theme song from Full Monty. Still, being one of about 20 guys in the bar made finding a salsa dance partner a cinch. Eliza, a really cute 23 year old Chilean girl, made me dance with her for at least an hour before her friends dragged her kicking and screaming out of the bar. Oh well, it's 4am anyway...
Friday, November 6, 1998
I got up early enough considering my late, late night. I decided on another walking tour of the city. My first stop, the Museum of Precolumbian Art, was fantastic. They have many sculptures from the Inca and pre-Inca times. The descriptions, unfortunately, were only in Spanish. Still, it's well worth a visit if you get a chance.
Then, off to the market, library, Central Park, a walk along the river bank. After lunch, I took a huge funicular up to the top of San Cristobal, a 1200 ft mountain rising from the outskirts of the city. The views are spectacular there, though I was disappointed with the amount of smog seeming to hang over the city.
Exhausted from a strenuous day (and previous night), I returned to the hotel for a quick nap. I finally got my friends, the Three Banditos that I had met in Colca de Canyon, Peru and who live in Santiago, on the phone and we decided to meet out at around 10 at Boomerang. I was really excited to see them again.
Back at Boomerang, the Banditos were late and I feared a standup. I started talking to an interesting Australian guy, Nick, who had no problem telling me about his extensive travels and adventures with hookers in almost every country in South America. Just for reference, Brazil has the best, followed closely by Chile, Argentina, Peru, and then Venezuala. Finally, saving me from an indepth discussion of girls from Uruguay, the Three Banditos showed up.
We had a nice interesting talk, some dinner, and a recap of our last night together in Peru -- a night where I left a disco at around 4 am only to see the guys dancing with the best looking Peruvian girls I've ever seen. Because of the guys' age (18), I have decided to omit the details I received, but let us just say that I was impressed.
We decided to go on a "disco tour" of Santiago. In the course of the next 6 hours, we hit 5 different discos. We spent an exorbitant amount of money, danced with a startling number of girls, and drank quite a few beers as well. I finally hit the bed at around 5 and really had a great time. This is the first real time that I've made foreign friends and then visited them in their home city -- it's an experience I hope to repeat many times again in Australia and Europe in the next year.
Saturday, November 7, 1998
At around noon, the Three Banditos called and asked me to come to lunch at their house. Excellent! They picked me up at the hotel a few hours later and we drove about 45 minutes into the suburbs of Santiago. Daniel's parent, both very accomplished architects, designed and built a tremendously interesting mansion for them and their 9 children... Yep, 9 children.
I was introduced all around and Daniel's younger brother really liked me. We wrestled and fooled around for quite some time while I was talking with Daniel's father. One of their four servants brought lunch, an outstanding combination of turkey and chicken. All of the children ate with us. After lunch, I checked out their amazing collection of Precolumbian art and made somewhat of a good impression on my hosts with my knowledge of the subject (I didn't tell them I had just gone to the museum the day before...)
Anyway, after a beautiful desert, we left the house and headed to Daniel's friends house for band practice. Daniel and his friends have an excellent up and coming rock band -- all original music -- and a studio in the friends house. I listened intently and then had the opportunity to play with the band myself. I played keyboards and the excellent musicians had no problem improvising over some songs that I wrote a few years ago... Hey, maybe I should start a band myself!
I was quite exhausted and Daniel dropped me off back in town around 8. After a quick dinner, I left and went back to my hotel for an early night. I knew I would need my energy for the trip to Puerto Montt where I am catching a ferry for a 1000 mile journey through the fjords in a few days.