Hi there, we're in Chile, po!* If you'e reading this from the East cost of Australia then jump up and down and wave - we might see you. We're internaughting from a seaside town about 470 km north of Santiago. Sadly we only have one week in this strangely long and narrow country. And yes, the cat's out of the bag.. we get back next week! Wednesday morning, cangurolandia time. We will be super happy to see all you reprobates reading this... and are likely to be ensconced over a schooner or two in Cooltown around knock-off time on Friday.
Meanwhile...some news from this last country on the polenta** trail (in no particular order). A new president was inaugurated this week. Michelle Bachelet, joins the small number of women national leaders in the world. She has a leftist platform, and the neighbouring presidents Morales (first indigenous leader of Bolivia), Kirchner (Bolshie Argentine who told the IMF to get stuffed) and Lulu from Brazil attended the ceremony.
After arriving at 2 in the afternoon, changing our money into tens of thousands of pesos***, we found the hostal thanks to a very efficient shuttle service, had a sleep and located our Italian buddies (see photos from Bolivia). The following day, we ventured out into Santiago in the sunlight. Our first stop, coffee. Prepay for coffee, get ticket, take place at long bar standing up, give ticket to waitress. Finally getting used to this system, common to these parts. Look up. Realise a) every customer in very large cafe is male and 2) all waitresses are wearing blue skintight lycra dresses, with long sleeves but of a length that would require a bikini wax for the working week. Interesting concept. 12 noon.
Snapshot two: after reclocating to a giant rambling student sharehouse in Barrio Brazil, night fell and it was time to go to the equivalent of a O Week concert at the catholic univeristy. Our carload got a message from the rest of the gang that it had got very crowded and they were shutting the gate. No worries, we could easily skip the fence in a less busy part of campus. So cut to a couple of gringos and students who had just finished classes at same institution jumping the fence into the grounds. Only to encounter large security man with walkie talkie shouting in Spanish. Pontential problem for tired Aussies. However, large man just wants us to get off the grass, and go to concert via the bitumen road. Thats just the ultimate in lowbagging. Sneaking into a free concert.
*Gratutious reference to local accent and idiom for Chile affectionados
**By the way, the main consumption of polenta on this trip was that which I mixed myself from an instant packet at the Turtle camp. I must have been confused with Central America when I named the blog.
***Don't be fooled - a 500mL bottle of water costs 500 pesos.
