Santiago December 27th - 30th

The 23 hour bus ride did not turn out nearly as bad as I was fearing, shorter bus rides in Bolivia went much worse. The bus through Chile was smooth and steady, save random stops along the way on the side of the road for who knows what reasons why? All the windows of the bus at night get covered with curtains, I would just imagine the bus driver scurrying out of the bus to run off into the darkness to relieve him of some inner demon.

Anyway arriving in Santiago was a wild change from the last capital I had visited. It felt like I was coming back home practically, at least in comparison to Bolivia. The Golden Arches were spotted on several occasions (McDonalds) along with other American fast food chains. Large apartment buildings were everywhere, along with other massive shopping centers and supermarkets (which are actually organized in an aisle fashion, with signs!) I was definitely back in civilization. Talking to people made me expect, to a degree, the change and height in development in Santiago compared to most South American cities, although I was still suprised. Here in Santiago I did a lot of walking and achieved nothing in the 2 days I stayed there before heading out to Valparaiso, the best New years party in South America and arguably the world. On top of all this discouraged walking it was swealteringly hot! I would say at the very least 30 degrees each day, closer to 40 in the afternoons. Santiais a large city of around 6 million people, although there is much more space, everything is further spread out, side walks are larger, stores are larger. For these 6 million people, the city has around 100 Universities, a local told me. He also told me that they are all shit and none of them are of any international standard or fame, yet most of them are quite expensive, comparing to some schools Canada for price. Whether this is completely true, I cannot be sure.

So I spent all the days, wandering the streets, and all the nights partying with friends from the hostel and going out to clubs. It was a fun social experience that I had not done much of so far for lack of interest. It was also a good warm-up for the coming new year in Valpo where it would be a thousand times bigger and better.