Santiago airport….. what can i say. This place is actually not as bad as expected but god…. how long time can it take to go through the passport check point. I mean security here is really fierce. Photos has to be taken, fingerprints, questions…… and no English of course. Hablas Engles, por favor? No, no! So this guy just looked at me and wanted to know alot of things. I said “si”… a lot! He gave me some adress…. I didn’t know for what, and sent me on my way.
After finding my way to Atacama Hostal, It was very easy… a bus, a metro and a bit of walking, I was greeted by a guy called Claudio. He was very nice and after a while i joined the common room where a few other people was talking…. and talking fast. Chilean Spanish is crazy! They speak faster than any other Hispanic people and i am not kidding when I tell you I couldn’t understand anything. I am not the guy who just jumps heedlessly into talking. When you say you are here as a student at the best university they have, well…. you can imagine me being a bit embaressed. I quickly found out they use a lot of slang and the worse thing is, they don’t pronounce any s’es. For you guys not understanding Spanish you have to know this is one of the most important letters in understanding which person you talk in… I, you, him/her, we, etc etc. Thanks to my language course in Spain this summer I am catching on quickly.
The two owners of the Atacama Hostal are very nice. Claudio and Rodrigo are both commercial engineers with an MBA out of Barcelona University. They are cool and like to party so after only one night we were already partying and getting along great.
My first contact in Chile was Carolina. A nice (and beautiful) Chilean girl whom I met up with on my second day here. She has shown me most of Santiago already and has helped my find an appartment. Actually it was a contact through Claudio, but she has been browsing newspapers, called a bunch of people and went with me to make sure people didn’t take advantage of me. The first perminent place I have here is a big appartment with a German guy and a french guy, and I am moving in the first of March.
Santiago is amazing, a great city of many different neighbourhoods - some more dangerous than others. Don’t worry mom, I live in the most secure area - Provedencia. Carolina showed my the main places in the city, where to see what, where not to go and which people I should stay clear of. They have something called “Café con Piernas” (Coffee with legs). It is a cafe where the service is done in very tight clothes (read: practically none) and it is a place where businessmen go and talk business. Carolina tried to show me one of these, or what she thought was one of these. She asked the man in front of a bit obscure building if she could come in with me (women are normally not allowed) and he said…. “si, si come in!” I took one step in the door, and saw the TV certainly didn’t show neither the latest business news or sports. Of course I just thought this was normal and started to go further in. I heard a short gasp behind me, a lot of “no! no! no! no!”’s and Carolina was pulling me out the swing door with a lot of girlish laughter and some “Holaaaa gringo!” taling behind me.
OK, no more for this time. Make sure you watch the pictures of Santiago before you go and please leave a comment if you like. Tomorrow I am moving south to Patagonia and Torres del Paine for some trekking and amzing views of the Chilean nature.
Buenos suerte a todos!