santiago updates

in our post two posts ago, we forgot to mention that kavitha has been designated as a turtle. especially when she is shirking into her green sweatshirt and donning her backpack. meanwhile, i have been designated as a panda or a hippo?!?! it will be a miracle if i do not develop an eating disorder in the meantime. sheesh.

yesterday morning, we spent the day bumming about in montevideo. we packed, then wnadered around until about 1, when we checked out and walked over to the bus station. to get the airport, it was only $22 pesos, which is about $1. BARGOONS!!! DEALZZZZZ! however, the bus was extremely crowded and i spent the majority of the trip with people's crotches in my face (very unpleasant). at least i had a seat!

when we got to the airport, we nearly missed our stop - luckily, everyone on the bus was on our side, and as the driver almost drove away, they yelled, PARRADA! (stop i think?) and stopped him 5 times, for each time one of us got off the bus. super funny.

the flight to santiago we were all separated, except for the giraffe and turtle (arti and kavitha, for our readers). i sat beside a ginger haired chilean kid (!) and her mom, and they were surprisingly pleasant. cheryl had fun arm wrestling and elbowing her armrest neighbour and bossmat seemed to have a dandy time. they served a really yummy jam cookie on the plane.

when we got there, we were surprised to find that we had to pay a $132 US entrance fee. WHAT GIVES! it was the highest for canadians, $131 for americans, $23 for mexicans, and something like $70 for australians. no one else had to pay an entry fee. L-A-M-E.

because we had to pay that fee, we were late to pick up our bags, and they were tossed on the floor and investigated by sniffer dogs. unfortunately bossmat's was marked, and she was targeted for her dried fruit and nuts, and then interrogated for about half an hour in a one way mirrored room! a very unpleasant experience overall. cheryl was interrogated over her dulce de leche. luckily, the minorities got away scot free. woot!

as soon as we left the terminal, three were a ton of chileans harassing us for rides into town. then a random canadian (skyler) asked us if we wanted to go into town together, so we all took a transvip minivan together, amounting to $4.000 pesos each. there was MUY traffic coming in, so after the adouanes (customs) fiascos and finally getting money and transportation in, we got in around 8PM.

when we got to the hostel, we were all very overwhelmed. it reeked of incense, and there seemed to be an abundance of hippies. we were MUY colon S. :S ABC and skyler ended up in a room close to the entrance, while kavitha and i were exiled to the cold dungeon, a room in the back of the hostel in the basement with no heat. only fitting that that happens to the trolls. HMPH!

skyler ended up tagging along with us in the evening and for dinner we went to a muy sketchy bar and had a muy sketchy pizza and deep fried wonton wrappers. half of the crowd really liked it! (i think i was just muy jealous because i couldn't eat cheese). we were in the university district so there were a lot of students. also, we sat behind a video jukebox, and one guy insisted on playing three reggaeton songs over and over and over again. which is fine, except that reggaeton videos are MUY SCANDALOUS! lots of jiggling, scantily clad women, and thongs. :|

at night, i had a difficult time sleeping because of my sinus problems and being crazy dehydrated) and ended up switching beds midway through the night. i think my roommates thought i was insane. cheryl was stuck with a bright orange light radiating on to her bed, which is fitting considering that in buenos aires she had a huge billboard shining into her face (gerardo sofovich, for your reference). kavitha adds, "i wonder what easter island will bring."

this morning, we had an interesting breakfast (GYNORMOUS buns with jam as well as ceylon tea... kavitha adds CEYLON! WOOT! SRI LANKA!) and then wandered off to run a couple errands: cancelling hostels, laundry, groceries (kavitha and i stocked up major!), booking tours, research, the post office (ANDY!!!!!! and my sister), etc. by the time we finished, it was around 1:30, and at that time we walked to the parque metropolitan.

parque metropolitan is what you think it is - the metropolitan park. there is a zoo, a funicular, as well as a cable car. at the top is the virgin mary, a big statue much like christ the redeemer (but not quite as grand). we managed to hike up the giant mountain/hill (a mountain to me, kavitha and arti, a molehill to bossmat and cheryl who are WAY more in shape). we had a little picnic on a log.

at the top of the hill, we took lots of pictures, wrote postcards, meandered, and ate ice cream. there was also a dog that was a real ham. it would just limp about (we were thinking this was all an act) and then start making strange poses so people would pay attention to it. then it followed us to the gift shop!!! craziness.

on the way down, we took the cable car, which was lovely but a little scary as they did not close completely. very scenic! then we walked to pio nono through a very ritzy chilean neighbourhood and were

a) invited to a birthday party for what we think is a toddler (all of us really wanted to after we had walked by)
b) were barked at by a GIANT SHEEPDOG that looked like a muppet (it was quite frightening because it appeared over the top of a giant 10 foot fence and we thought it would attack us)

finally, we got back and now we are blogging. potential activities:

tomorrow: valparaiso, and sunday: wining. we will, of course, keep you updated.

happy victoria day to our canadian readers!!!

residual questions:

1) why do mirrors get black spots over time?
2) who reads this blog other than parents, siblings, and boyfriends? (and amelia and liz and emma)