High Tech Hobo: Santiago

In Front of the Museo de Bella Artes

I don't have much to say about Santiago. The capital of Chile was but a pit-stop in my journey – a nexus through which I had to travel in order to reach any one of the final major stops I would make during this trip South America.

When I got off the Puerto Eden on October 31st, I had only twenty-one days left before I had to fly off to New Zealand. (As you all know, it turned out later that I actually had thirty-one days left in South America, but I obviously didn't know that at the time.) When I boarded the ship, four days earlier, I was in a little bit of a panic. There was still so much I wanted to see and do in Chile, western Argentina, Bolivia and southern Peru, but I only had three weeks to play with. The devil on the left shoulder was telling me to go crazy and start blitzing my way up to Lima – stopping in places for only a night or two while I ran myself ragged trying to see as much as possible. The devil on the right was telling me to pick three places, spending four or five days in each place – after all, I could always take another career break down the line and come back to South America for a year or so and see all the places I didn't get to.

Bellavista Graffiti

I listened to the devil on the right and picked Valparaíso, Chile; Mendoza, Argentina; and Arequipa, Peru.

I hopped on the 8:00pm bus out of Puerto Montt. Before I could get to Valparaíso, Medoza or Arequipa, I first had to make my way up to Santiago.

More Bellavista Graffiti

I stayed in Santiago for two nights. Pit-stop or not, I needed a couple of days to recharge from the maritime voyage and the twelve-hour bus journey. The day I got there, it was Sunday. Just about everything was closed – I didn't have to do anything except sit around the hostel doing blessed nothing. The next day, I did a short walking tour of the city, snapped a few photos, and then returned to the hostel and spent more time doing blessed nothing.

Sea Urchins, For Sale at the Main Market

If I'm making it sound like Santiago is a boring city, and that I didn't like it, that's not the case. There are some neat photographic opportunities in the Bellavista district. I had a great bowl of shellfish ceviché at the Mercado Central. I bought two really good jars of chilli sauce (smoked pepper and honey; and garlic and olive) at the same market – I’d been craving spicy food for the last two months and finding it scarce to non-existent in Brazil in Argentina. But Santiago is just another big city, and I'd already been through São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires during the last two months.