I arrived at around 8am on Friday the 7th and as soon as I stepped off the plane to the airport itself I felt a sence of freedom. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face even as I waited in the very long and slow line to go through immigration. I was unbelievably excited. I had just walked into freedom. I was in another country with no idea where I would be staying and no plans of what I would be doing or for how long but the possibilities were endless. The first necessity once I had collected by backpack was to find a hostel. Once I was learned how to connect to the airport wifi I booked myself a cool hostel for two nights in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago. Now the new challenge was how to get there and what to do until 3pm when I could check-in. I decided to try my hand at the bus since a cab seemed like a very unnecessary expense. However, the bus whose route I had looked up was no where to be found so I decided to hop on a different bus and see where it took me. Forgetting I had no wifi or service I took the 40 minute ride into the city and assumed I could just get off when I recognized downtown Santiago. Noting is that simple. The bus didn't seem to go that far and instead I was forced off at the last stop with absolute no idea where I was and no service. The next logical decision I made was that since that transportation experience went so well I should try my hand at Chile's metro system. So after about 10 minutes of wandering around I found an entrance to the subway and bought my self a bipcard (the subway pass here for Santiago). I decided that I should head to the university area, because where there are university students there would be coffee, food and most likely wifi. This turned out to be a very good idea, except for the fact that I was carrying a very large winter jacket, two carry-ons and a massive backpack through a subway station and packed car. I made it though, the stations are labeled very clearly and everyone was so helpful. It was now close to 10:30 am and I spent a solid half hour wandering around until I saw a sign for Starbucks (a familiar face). The baristas and I bonded over similar Starbucks experiences and they helped get me turned around. From here I decided to walk through La Moneda and take to 20 minute walk to the art museums I have been dying to see. Luckily when you are looking lost and carrying a very large backpack everyone is surprisingly helpful and got me to the museum after I took myself in a few full circles, the streets ares not easy.
The museums are AMAZING. It is two each with an entrance on opposite ends that connect throughout, the MAC ( Museo de Arte Contemporeno) is contemporary and run by the University of Chile and the MNBA (Museo National de Bellas Artes) is a more classical and historical art museum. The exhibits in both were beautiful, the MAC's main show was based on Le Corisbusier the architect which just so happened to have been my favorite topic that I studied in human geography last year. The MNBA had many exhibits from one of a Swedish artist, to classic Chilean art but my favorite was one about the idea of masculity and its role and effects on our society, politics, art, and history. The show had pieces from the early 1200s to the 1700s to the 1950s and modern pieces all mixed thogeher to display themes such as birthright and honor/status, the colonial history of masculinity, the "father" figure and its power/state relation, the patriarchic definition of "being a man" and ultimately the changing definitions of gender and masculity throughout time. (This is what I got from the exhibit and the text in Spanish, hoping I am right) It wasn't a show about male vs female, nor a critique on men, but an exploration of why masculity exists the way it does now, and what it changed/caused in our history. After spending many hours in the art museums I decided to walk to 20-30 minutes to my hostel in Bellavista to see the neighborhood, and because I didn't know where the nearest subway stop would be.
After taking a very long nap (exhausted form the 6 kilometers I walked with all my belongings for 7 months and the 20 hours of travel I had just endured) I woke up feeling ready to hit the town again. I got ice cream with 4 super cool Australian girls that I had just met in my hostel who were just finishing a 2 month backpacking trip around South America. It was their last night and my first night. Embracing my freedom I had ice cream for dinner (of course chose Manjar as the flavor). We went out that night and as they had done the pub crawl the night before showed me to cool bars and clubs, we ended up sneaking on the pub crawl to get the drink deals and got the wrist bands for half off. Chile really never sleeps and most of the bars were still going at 5am, the bar tender at one of the clubs told me happy hour was starting in half an hour, it was 2:30am.
The next morning I got up early and the two German girls who were my other dorm mates invited me to go to Cerro San Cristobal (the large virgin statue that can be seen from all of Santiago and located directly behind our hostel). We also took the metro into the city together as they needed to buy bus tickets south and I was going shopping and exploring other parts of Santiago. For lunch I had the most amazing 4 cheese empanadas and a salad with calamari and fried shrimp on top. It was incredible. Afterwords I met back up with Katharina and Birte and we walked over to the funcionar (tram) which takes you to the top of the mountain where the Virgin Mary stands. The line was hours, hours, long.
We knew there were trails up and around the top and decided that even though I was very unprepared (no water, wearing Birkenstocks and a skirt) that it would be more worth it to walk up the mountain. However, we couldn't find the trail, eventually running into a Chilean couple who warned us that it was very long and complicated and easy to get lost, assuming they were exaggerating we said we wanted to do it and asked where the start was. The directions were to look for a hole in the fence with a sign that said "No Pasa" or No trespassing that we should start there. Well we found the sign ok but it immediately stars with a fork in the road going to different directions up the mountain and is just tiny dirt trails going strait up at a severely intense inclines, and intersecting with bike trails. While contemplating which way to start a group of three Chilean guys came through the fence and started hiking to the left so we followed. Next a middle aged Chilean couple followed us. Katharina and Birte and I felt better knowing that if we got completely lost on this mountain there would be 8 of us total. However somehow the guys slowed down and we took the lead and all of us hiked together single file with me leading, but I DIDNT KNOW WHERE I WAS GOING, there were constant switch backs with would head in opposite directions and I randomly chose either one. About half way up we took a rest and began talking to the guys. Somehow we lost the couple on the trail, but found them at the Virgin Mary and celebrated all of our success at surviving together. An hour after we started we made it to the top. Also let me explain that between that bottom and the top of the mountain is the zoo, so while we were lost we were also hearing all of the animals roaring from who knows where. However, it was incredible. The views were absolutely amazing you can see ALL of Santiago from the hills and we stumbled upon many picnic areas hidden around. In an ironic twist one of the guys was in the military and another a police officer, and so we felt better about trespassing since it was with them. However I was not walking the 8kilometers back down. We decided to see how long for the funcionar was, another hour, so the 6 of us took the cable car across to a different mountain and down. As someone who is terrified of heights I spent the majority with my eyes closed but opened them to capture a few photos because the view was unbelievable.
The beginning
All of us at the top of the hill
That little white thing on top of the mountain is the Virgin Mary.
Once back at the hostel I said goodbye to to the Australians who were headed to the airport and Katharina, Birte and I decided to cook dinner in the Hostel as it was the most economical choice and we were to hungry to find a restaurant. Monday morning I packed up my backpack which seems to be much larger and impossible to pack up again even though I haven't bought anything new, hoping to somehow get a system down. I stored my backpack in the hostel storage, and wandered around Bellavista. I had wanted to go to Pablo Nerudas house/museum but it was closed, just another reason to come back. I spent the afternoon booking ferry and buses around Argentina Uruguay and Paraguay as well figuring out Patagonia. I am hoping to meet up with the German girls again in the south potentionly Punta Arenas or Puerto Williams. And the Austrailians invited me to stay with them in Brisbane if I head that way while in Australia.
Ultimately I spent my last afternoon in Santiago in the sun with 6 new people from my hostel, two Americans (one taking a break as he just finished working on Hilary's campaign), a German (who has been traveling for the past 7 years), and two women from Portugal who offered to let me stay with them when I reach Portugal. We sat and talked for few hours over beer a typical southern Chilean drink of rum cinnamon and milk. The perfect ending to my weekend in Santiago.
