A time for Chilling in Chile

I have left the majority of the Chile blogging to Chris who was able to see far more than I was. After all, I spent much of my time here at school and didn´t have the chance to go off on any excursions. (Thanks Chris for your fab blogs! It´s been great to be able to just read passively for a change and have a few weeks off writing myself. Good job Christophe). Having said this, I still spent two weeks in the capital city and therefore had a few, brief reflections of my own. People we met here were, without fail, incredibly helpful and patient. This really helped us find our way around town and slowly, we began to learn the correct way to ask for things in Spanish. The fast-paced Spanish that followed in response, well, we´ll get there eventually - we hope!

Jose was the kind of lovely that sometimes makes me cry (!!). When the apartment was too cold, he brought a heater and extra blankets round for us. He left a mobile phone with us which held not only his number, but the numbers of the friends and family we should call if we had an emergency and weren´t able to reach him. He had written a three page guide to the city which detailed his favourite restaurants, bars and places to go for the day. Because this new apartment hadn´t yet been installed with the internet (we were the first guests in this particular apartment, he having signed the papers for it only the day before we arrived), he gave us keys to his apartment upstairs. We were able to use the internet there wheneve we wanted; this was extremely kind of him and really, above and beyond what we expected. His warm and friendly manner made us feel immediately welcome in this city and made a real difference to our stay. Thanks so much Jose! As Chris has mentioned, the street dogs here really are something. It´s incredible wathcing them cross the street at crossings, waiting for the green man just like their human friends. What´s also interesting is the way the Santiagan people respond to them. You certainly wouldn´t find many people back home stroking a stray dog - here it is very different. People in Santiago really care for these dogs and seem embarrassed that they should have so many roaming their city. We would often walk past a sleeping dog who had had a piece of bread placed by its nose, left there by a caring passer-by for when it woke up.

The Lomito...

With us having an apartment for once, we managed to eat in much of the time. I would take a packed lunch to school leaving Cris to explore Chile´s lunchtime culinary delights alone. I thus didn´t sample much traditional cuisine here but when I did have the occasion, my main options were a hot dog (completo) piled with tomato, guacamole and mayonaise or a Lomito - a huge, greasy pork sandwich with the same toppings. Both of these I sampled on more than one occasion and, perhaps unfairly, both of these will remain my living memory of what constitutes a Chileno meal. My dad asked me whether the food here was spicy as he had always imagined it would be, but no, from what I can tell, the everyday meal out will be greasy, fatty, deliciously tasty and as Chris described it, resembles what any man would cook when left to his own devices without a girlfriend or wife looking over his shoulder.

I have some great memories from here in Chile and what makes them so special is that they were shared with Chileno people themselves. One such experience was when I went for a haircut (my second during the whole trip). Armed with instructions written in Spanish by Annie, the amazing receptionist at school, I walked into a local hairdressers. What the employees must have really thought as I stumbled my way through the instructions for 'a trim with a few layers at the back' in terrible Spanish, I'll never know, but they were incredibly kind and humoured me by laughing with me instead of at me. I walked out a contented customer while they were left bemused at what on earth I had even asked for.

Chilenos are an incredibly sociable species! They are keen to socialise with Jonny Foreigner and there were a few occasions here where I was reminded of my Erasmus days in Switzerland, especially when we attended a ¨Tandem Party¨ one evening. The idea of this was for Chilenos to meet up with foreigners and practice their English or German while we foreigners practiced our Spanish. It was an incredibly popular evening with the locals and we met some really interesting people. Following this evening, Chris managed to arrange a day out around Santiago with one of the people we met there, Gabriel.

Though I haven´t seen as much of Santiago as Chris, visited as many places or tasted as many foods, I can still appreciate the warmth and friendliness of this city where, if we were to live here, I know we would have no problem meeting friends and mixing with the locals. People are so concerned with taking care of you and ensuring that you enjoy their city that for the lone traveller, this is an exceptionally easy place to spend time for a few weeks, months or even years.

Muchas Gracias, Santiago de Chile for welcoming me with open arms and ensuring I enjoyed my calm and relaxed stay here.