Index                                                                                                     Contents Page                                                                                          Santiago City

 

 

Before I go any further, I want to thank my friends Jorge and Jany (Pronounced Honey) for helping us out with downloading photos when our portable hard drive packed up mid trip.

 

Muchas Gracias

 

 

Boarding the Boeing 747 was the most nerve-wracking thing for me.  I hadn’t been on a plane since 1972 and it was now 2007.  It was 24 hours of travel that was in front of me before JJ and I joined the rest of our family in Santiago, Chile.  The flight was surprisingly easy but a little uncomfortable in cattle class.  As we approached Santiago, I grew anxious to get on the ground.  The plane flew in from the north, past Valparaiso, parallel with the Andes Mountains.  I was fortunate enough to be at a window and on one side of the plane were these gigantic mountains and on the other side were plots of land that made up mainly small farms.  It seemed like forever before we touched down.  Finally we were there and after a short trip through customs and paying the government 56 American dollars to enter the country, JJ and I finally caught up with the rest of our family and relatives that we had never met before.    After we were all loaded into a van, we headed off to Cerro Navia and on my left were the mountains but on my right were mountains as well.  Mountains of litter.  It seems people like to dump their rubbish anywhere which is such a pity for such a beautiful country.  Another problem is the graffiti.  In the poorer areas of Santiago, there is just too much graffiti for anyone to think about removing.  Pity.  Another thing I noticed was there were dogs everywhere and I mean everywhere.  People own some of them but they have small yards so they let them out to crap on the street and most of the suburban streets are small.  Others just roam around.  Most if not all of them have ticks but I don’t think the people there realise that you can use chemicals to get rid of them or if the realise that ticks are actually dangerous little critters.

 

The things I disliked about Chile

I’ve told you most of the things already

 

Litter – Most people disrespect their own suburb by just throwing litter on the ground

in front of their houses and not caring enough to pick it up.

 

Dogs – There is no need for so many dogs and the councils do nothing about the dogs roaming the streets.

 

Smog – Not much can be done as Santiago is stuck between 2 mountain ranges.

 

Graffiti – Something needs to be done about all the graffiti around the place.  It makes the suburbs look ugly.

 

Toilets – It’s a pain when you have to pay 150 pesos a time to use the toilet.  Also they give you a tiny bit of paper to wipe with.  You can’t even blow your nose on what they give you.  Make sure you take a toilet roll on outings and baby wipes to wipe you hands after eating because it still 150 pesos to wash your hands.  Another toilet habit I couldn’t get into was discarding used toilet paper into a bin at the side of the cubicle.  They don’t think that their sewerage system can handle paper.  Well it does!!!!  But in hindsight, the toilets are safe because there are people maintaining them all the time and they are clean.

To tell you the truth, if you have no relatives in Santiago then you’d be better off heading country as soon as you can.  There is little to see apart from the National Museum and the train museum which are in the same complex at the University de Chile and a couple of old buildings.  It’s hard to take any good pics because there are so many people and a fair few thieves that will grab your stuff and run off.  Don’t expect a colourful city because in the 1500’s they were selling grey paint really cheap. 

 

Probably the biggest bitch I have to make is about TRANSANTIAGO.  This is a really poor excuse for a government run transport company.

 

 

On the up side, there were so many great things about Chile and you didn’t have to travel that far from Santiago.  Although it can be difficult when you don’t have your own wheels.  Still with the help of buses and Luis in his school bus, we managed quiet well. 

 

The thing that made Santiago enjoyable was the people.  In the small street we called home for a number of weeks, everybody knew each other and greetings were always given.  Even strangers walking past would say hello.  Here in Perth, that just doesn’t happen and we only know on neighbour in our street.  The kids in the street would stay out playing and socialising until about 11pm before being called home to bed. 

 

Weighing up the good and the bad, I’d live in Santiago but only if I had a good job as the pay is pretty miserable.  The company of the people makes the difference.

 

 

 

 

    

The Street We Stayed At - Google Map