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Santiago
Saturday, March 20^th was officially the longest day in Globalizing history. We boarded a plane at 4:40 pm in Auckland, New Zealand and after an eleven hour flight which crossed the international dateline, we arrived in Santiago, Chile at 11:00 am the same day. Our friend, Bridget, from Colorado was coming to meet us on the 24^th, at which time the three of us would begin traveling around Chile together. While awaiting her arrival, we spent the first three nights in the capital city at Hostal Forestal where we recovered from our jet lag and began planning the South America portion of our trip. An elderly American couple we met at a café gave us free tickets for a historical bus tour around the city. The tickets cost US$36 and it is something we never would have purchased on our own. The double decker bus drove us past the main sights while an audio recording told us about the city’s history .

Our first hostel was located in a quiet area and we enjoyed cooking dinners, watching movies, and playing pool. It was nice to have large lockers in our room where we could secure our backpacks, unfortunately the lock we purchased in India broke and our bags were stuck inside. We had to wait overnight until the sweet old lady in charge of maintenance and cleaning came in the morning. Using a file, she attempted to saw the lock off, which did not work, so she broke the hinges using a hammer. After a few relaxing nights at the hostel, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at the trendy warehouse-turned-café plaza in the Barrio Bellavista neighborhood. With the help of a few friendly Chileans on the way home, we successfully purchased a bottle of white wine and went back to the hostel to challenge one another at a few games of pool. After one of the longest games in the history of pool, Jayme won just as seven Danish guys waltzed into the common room. We each paired up with one guy and began yet another long drawn out game of pool. The game lasted even longer than necessary due to the horrific rum/whiskey shots we were all consuming. Along side our new group of friends we headed to a nearby bar where we learned Danish folk songs and created quite the scene while we ordered rounds of Brahma beer. They sang us each Happy Birthday in Danish which consists of the birthday boy/girl picking three musical instruments (ex. drums, trumpet, and piano) that are then acted out and incorporated into the song. Our night ended by learning an interactive song where we stood on chairs, swung tables back and forth with one hand, drank a beer with the other, and sang obnoxiously loud. Surprisingly we weren’t kicked out and only left because our wallets were empty.

 

While the first hostel we stayed in was nice, we wanted something better for when Bridget joined us. Casa Roja was a 19^th-century mansion-turned-hostel complete with free internet, spacious rooms, two courtyards, huge guest kitchen, ping pong table, outdoor bar, and a pool with a swim-up bar. Bridget’s plane arrived an hour early, but with no way to get in touch with us, she had to wait at the airport until we arrived. We spent the day lounging around the pool and catching up on the last 9 ½ months. She came bearing many gifts including Jayme’s replacement credit and debit cards (originals were stolen in Australia and the new ones were shipped to her parents in Colorado), leggings, winter hats, and gossip magazines. Flipping through the magazines was a reminder we have been gone a long time because we didn’t know many of the headline stars. The three of us shared a double room to save money, but spent most of the night hours socializing with other travelers in the large backyard. We made a lot of friends during our stay at Casa Roja and had a fun time on self-guided walking tours, cooking dinners, eating out, and hanging around the hostel with them.

 

Allen and Johnny from Ireland were getting ready to head to New Zealand after spending six months in South America, so we exchanged travel tips and enjoyed their quirky sense of humor. Our friend, Jenn, from home put us in contact with Francisco and Maurice who are from Santiago. They introduced us to Pisco, the local liquor and shared their accounts of the recent earthquake. Wickie and Marie from Denmark were stuck in Santiago because Marie’s passport and exit paper were stolen and they were waiting on the embassy for replacements. Lucky for us, their extra time in the city meant we got to spend that much more time with them and hope to meet up with them again. Peter, Eric, and Steve from Canada were at the end of their two week trip and we fear we might be responsible for the end of their careers if they choose to follow our “quit your job and travel the world” path. Casa Roja had a very friendly staff made up of fellow travelers who put on a number of activities for all of us. We spent time getting to know Bianca, from Arizona, and Matt, from France. Junior, from Brazil, spoke very little English and really liked having Jayme as his own personal teacher. We took part in a movie night, barbeques, a ping pong tournament, and our self-made flip cup tournament. People from as many as nine countries, including the USA, England, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, Chile, Brazil, New Zealand, and France, surrounded the perimeter of the ping pong table in what turned into the sloppiest game of flip cup we have ever played. After five fun and sleepless nights at Casa Roja, we left our favorite hostel to see what else Chile had to offer.

 

Valparaiso
Just an hour and a half north of Santiago lies the poor but colorful town of Valparaiso stacked on the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. This Unesco World Heritage site is famous for its gondola-like elevators which are an alternative to walking up and down the steep footpaths. After checking into YoYo Hostel and reluctantly leaving our bags in the already broken locker, we set out in search of lunch. Many people warned Chelsea that she will have a hard time finding vegetarian meals in South America, so she was excited when she saw a “hot cheese sandwich” on the menu. Never again will she order a hot cheese sandwich. It looked more like a bread bowl with cheese fondue gooing from the center. From there, we set off to explore the city on foot. We rode one of the elevators to the top of the hill which offered nice views of the city and the bay. We all purchased items made of blue lapiz stone which are only native to Chile and Afghanistan. Without knowing where we were headed, we ventured along a road that turned out to lead straight into one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. As we walked along, photographing the many colorful buildings, two local women from opposite directions frantically ran up to us waving their arms and asking us to stop. Between their broken English and our broken Spanish, we learned we were in a very dangerous area where daily robberies take place. The women stayed with us until a taxi drove by and they explained to the driver that we needed to get back to the center of town. We felt lucky that we were warned before anything happened.

 

While we do enjoy our nights out, we were hoping for a relaxing night spent at the hostel. We were all a little freaked out after the situation earlier and headed back to YoYo where we watched a movie before going to dinner. One of the exciting parts about traveling in countries where the people do not speak much English is ordering food without knowing exactly what will turn up on the plate. Empanadas are very popular and we ordered choclo and aceituna empanadas hoping they wouldn’t be filled with chocolate and tuna! Our corn and olive empanadas were delicious as we sipped tea and planned for an early night. Back at the hostel we noticed a couple familiar faces and figured out that the girls sitting next to us on the couch had been our roommates at our hostel in Queenstown, New Zealand a few weeks ago. Their friend Steve was traveling the same route we were and we planned to meet up with him when we arrived at our next destination. As we were preparing for bed, we were informed that a circus performance would be starting in the hostel common area shortly. One of the hostel managers performed a number of tricks including rope acrobatics for his friend’s birthday. The show was impressive but unfortunately the birthday party continued outside our room until 6:00 am. It started with music blaring out of the computer which sounds obnoxious, but was nothing compared to the marching band that arrived a few hours later. Party-goers joined in the noise by banging on anything and everything. Between the pots and pans, drum, and trumpet we got very little sleep and were happy when the police finally shut the party down. We only got about two hours of sleep before the alarm went off and it was time to explore the neighboring Viñ a del Mar before heading south to the Lake District.

 

 Pucon
Evidence of the recent disaster became more apparent as our bus passed Concepcion which was the epicenter of the earthquake. Bridges had collapsed, buildings were crumbling, and large cracks in the road made it a slow journey to Pucon. Pucon is a lovely town located at the base of Volcan Villarica and is the starting off point to many outdoor activities in the area. While hiking the volcano is the most popular adventure and we were initially planning to take part, the weather and the steep price changed our plans. For the same amount of money we could enjoy a 3-day Amazon trek, go on a 2-day jeep tour of the salt flats in Bolivia, or pay for 5 nights accommodation in Argentina… we just couldn’t justify the one day hike. Instead, we took a public bus to the nearby Huerquehue National Park. We layered our clothing and put on our jackets, hats, and gloves for what turned out to be a very wet hike. The rain started as a simple drizzle, but turned into a solid downpour by the time we reached the waterfall. We weren’t far from our final destination, but had to turn around before seeing the lakes because the trail had become a muddy, slippery stream. Once we reached the small ranger station at the entrance we realized we still had two hours until the bus would be back to pick us up. We took off our wet layers and snuggled together to stay warm on the front porch. At first we thought the ranger station was deserted, but once we smelled a wood stove we knew someone must be inside and we were desperate to find a way in. We knocked on the door and asked the ranger if we could sit inside. We slowly dried off, warmed up, and practiced our Spanish with the rangers that continued arriving and filling up the small room. We met up with Steve from the hostel in Valparaiso for dinner later that night and he couldn’t help but say, “I told you so”, since he had decided to stay in bed instead of hike with us.

 

 

 

It had been at least three weeks since we had done laundry so we bagged up nearly everything we own and set off for the local and recommended lavenderia. The clothes would be ready that evening, but we had a full day ahead of us and tried to explain that we would pick them up the next morning. We booked a cultural tour through Serena, a friendly German girl, at her bakery/travel agency. We spent an afternoon visiting the native Mapuche Indians. The kind old woman taught us how to spin sheep’s wool, dressed us in the typical clothing, and fed us a traditional meal. Lamb roasted on the open fire, potatoes, salad, fried bread, and medicinal tea filled us up as we listened to her and her husband play their handmade instruments. Our guides took us to some nearby waterfalls. Four waterfalls fed into one lake, three of which came from above ground while the other one came from an underground stream. From there we visited the local thermal baths which were especially warm due to the recent earthquake that had disturbed the nearby volcano. We soaked in the pools for a few hours while enjoying the beautiful surroundings. 

The following day was Good Friday and we were disappointed to find the lavenderia closed. We stopped by periodically throughout the morning but realized we needed assistance in tracking down the shop owner before our bus left later that evening. Serena from the travel agency speaks fluent Spanish and was excited to take on the task of getting our laundry back. After two phone calls, a note on the door, and the help of the gas station attendants next door, we felt we were making some progress. The owners were out of town for the holiday weekend, but they called someone in to open the store and by late afternoon we were reunited with our clean and nicely folded clothes. The three of us boarded an overnight bus back to Santiago where we spent a final morning hanging out with Bridget before saying goodbye and see you in two months! Bridget set off for the airport while we boarded yet another bus bound for Mendoza, Argentina.

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