Day 94-95, Vistas and Views

The following takes place on Tuesday, March 1 and Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The night before was an amazing time, one of the best nights I’ve ever had to be honest. It was definitely sad to say goodbye to Ben and to know that in one more day I’ll be the one saying goodbye. But what a way to send him off! And for those that are curious about the “incident” with the guard at the India Embassy. 3am, as we were walking by, the girls all decided they needed a cigarette and bummed a light off of the guard. Then Ben thought it would be a hell of an idea if he took his belt off and take turns wacking us all on the ass with it while the guard took photos.

Yeah. We were drunk.

I woke up with Stefan packing up his stuff as his girlfriend from back in Brazil was supposed to be arriving that afternoon and they had booked a different hotel to spend time together. Another hard goodbye was had as I watched him leave the hostel. That left myself, Erin, and Kasandra of the original five still in the hostel.

Day 93, The Santiago Gang says goodbye

The following takes place on Monday, February 28, 2011

Monday would be a bittersweet day as it would be Ben’s last full day in Santiago and the Santiago Gangs last night together as a group. This was an amazing group to hang out with and it was strange how fast we became a little group of friends. As it was Ben’s last day, we made plans for the two of us to head out to Valparaiso and Vino Del Mar on the coast of Chile.

Two red heads on the beach and in the sun. Yeah, this will turn out well.

Day 91-92, City of Healthy Living

The following takes place on Saturday, February 26 and Sunday, February 27, 2011

Ok, just be patient with me for a quick little second as, once again, I’m talking about geocaching. Before I came to Santiago, I downloaded what is called a “Pocket Query” of geocaches in the area. Among those that came up was an Event Cache which is a special geocache in which people get together to share stories, eat, drink, and just have a good time. This was also the very first Event Cache ever set up in Chile(which is interesting as Chile was the second country in the world to have a geocache). While I wasn’t sure I would be in Santiago for the event, I let the organizers know that I would try.

Lucky for me, I happened to be in town on that day although, admittedly, I woke up late because of the previous night. I woke up around 11:30am, an hour and a half after the event was supposed to start. You have never seen me get out of bed so fast. Not usually a good thing as the bunk beds are a bit lower than normal so I ended up hitting my head on the board.

Great start to the day.

Day 90, Being Sociable In Santiago

The following takes place on Friday,  February 25, 2011

After waking up with surprisingly no hangover, the first thing I did was attempt to find where Ben was. Or, more importantly, whether he actually got back to the hostel safely. After a massive margarita and numerous tequila shots(you’re welcome!), he was a tad bit gone. Probably didn’t help that he was still a wee bit jetlagged from coming from Melbourne.

With Ben officially found and alive, I sat around while the rest of the previous nights gang slowly woke up. With plans to head to the Plaza de Armas for a free walking tour of Santiago, we had to start getting a bit of a move on if we wanted to make it.

Day 89, The Santiago Gang Forms

The following takes place on Thursday, February 24, 2011

The plan that formed today involved doing some geocaching along the route of the metro station that stops by my hostel. I packed a little bag with some extra batteries, my GPS, my iTouch, pens, and my camera and took off.

I’ve probably said this many times before, and will probably write an actual article regarding this, but geocaching is one of the best ways to see parts of a city you would normally never see. These are places that locals thought should be highlighted. Out of the way parks, important monuments, isolated view points of the city. Hell, sometimes even locals don’t know about these places themselves.

Day 87-88, Time to Scream

The following takes place between Tuesday, February 22 and Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The bus ride from Iquique to Santiago is a long, 23/24 hour journey. I splurged though and got a full cama bus with TurBus, one of the best bus companies I’ve done business with. They are the largest bus company in Chile, with destinations completely throughout the narrow country. I still swear that Greyhound can stand to do a little trip to Peru(Cruz del Sur) and Chile(TurBus) to see how bus companies should be run. Comfortable, friendly, ON TIME. There’s even food included in the price.

We arrived in Santiago in the mid afternoon. Before I had left Iquique I had booked a hostel and had memorized the directions to get there. This involved taking the subway. Luckily there was a metro station right at the bus terminal. I bought my BIP card, which is a reloadable card to get you on both the subway and the city buses, and got onto the subway.

Days 73-86, Of Sun, Beach, Earthquakes, and Romance

The following takes place between Tuesday, February 8 and Monday, February 21, 2011

Oh, how grand life is. There are certain moments that really hit it home that I’m on a trip like no other. How else can one go from giant expanses of salt, to desert, to ocean side in the space of a week? It’s hard sometimes to remember how fortunate I am to be able to experience all that I am experiencing. The idea of going on a Round The World trip is such a foreign concept back home. You rarely, if ever, hear of people doing something like this. Either because it was always thought to be too expensive(back when the province was struggling), to now where it’s thought to be too much time to take off(now that the province is booming and everyone is putting more value in making money than in leisure time).

So here I am, in Iquique, a beautiful little city(smaller than Saskatoon even), nestled between the beginnings of the Andes and the Pacific Ocean. Rarely is there a cloud in the sky. Rarely is there a breeze in the air, and when the wind does blow, the smell of the salt water is ripe. It’s as close to paradise as I have been.

Days 70-73, Stepping away from the Tourist Gig

The following takes place between Saturday, February 5 and Monday, February 7, 2011

After I finished the trip through the Salar de Uyuni and the subsequent lagoons and such, and crossing the border into Chile, I made a decision. I was done with tourist things. Besides the short little stint in Cochabamba, and the few days of bed confining sickness in La Paz, I’ve been rushing around signing up for tour after tour after tour for weeks. I was getting sick of it.

I was getting sick of spending hours going through tour agencies looking for the best tour for the best price. I was losing my sense of wonder and awe at the things I was seeing. In a way, I was relearning the major differences between a trip like mine, and a regular holiday from work.