It's been a little while since I last posted, busy week. I'm on yet another plane, I'm getting over this airport buisness. I'm on my second flight for today, currently on the way to Cuzco, Peru. The two planes from today have been pretty good, much more leg room but no inflight entertainment but who needs that crap when most people have smartphones, tablets and laptops these days.
So i think the last I posted I was still in San Pedro De Atacama (a small desert tourist town in the north of Chile). We went there for the weekend and met up with my mums busker friend Ricardo. Last time I went I turned 18 that night and this time we landed for Ricardo's 28th birthday so as soon as we got unpacked we crossed the road and went to his place for his birthday party. He's a sweetheart and organised the airport transfer for us and hostel because mum couldn't find any places that were available (which I know is bullshit and she musnt of tried very hard because that town is drowning in hostels). The last time we came we actually stayed in Ricardo's place which wasn't really a home lol, it was an unfinished construction site that had three stand alone rooms. One was a toilet that only had running water during daylight and he used one room as his bedroom but it was just a matress on the floor and his suitcase. I liked staying with him last time, it felt authentic haha. He works as a waiter during the day in one the multiple restaurants in the town and at night he busks with his friends. I never know how to say what style it is in english but in spanish it's called musica andina. Think panpipes, guitars, bombos and charangos. He was telling me that it's the only town in Chile where a musician could make a living from busking because of the amount of tourists. Anyway, this time he organised for us to stay across from the new place he's staying at which is also similar to his last place, standalone rooms on a plot of land. The hostel was beautiful, hostels here in Chile have a totally different feel to what I was expecting: kings cross backpackers. We had a private room with an ensuite and had that beutiful rustic/adobe architecture that San Pedro is known for.
So that first night we went to his room which really wasn't built to accomodate that many people haha. It was just big enough though, he had his bed in there and a couch and a shelf with all his instruments scattered around. All his muso friends were there plus a bunch of chicks and the whole night was spent with different people taking turns playing guitar and group singalongs and drinking. It was fun, the people there are so different. They were all about my age and most of them free-spirits who had left their hometowns to persue a more chill lifestyle, trying to find themsevles and whatnot =P Most of them worked as tourist guides or restaurant/hotel workers. Thing is, most of them come from fairly well off familys, most people in Chile can't afford to just pick up and leave like that. Mum went on a few schpeels about how they're hippies with money, so the complete opposite of what they once were and basically kept calling them posers lol. Which is kinda true in a way, they dress and act all boho, they give up their riches but in the end they have mummy and daddy to send them money when they need it. Quite a few of them had travelled heaps to different countries which is totally unheard of amoung your average Chilean. They were interesting people and generally just want to have a good time.
While I was in San Pedro i did all the tours I could and dearlord is that place beautiful. Harsh weather though but that's expected of desert conditions. One of the tours I did to the geysers we had -11 degrees in the morning and by 2pm we were at 35 degrees lol. Highlight of that weekend trip was going to the hot spring!! I was heaps devo after my tour group forgot to pick me up and I was over going but mum booked me another tour with a different company for the next day and it worked out even better because I ended up going to a different hot spring which was 1000 times prettier than the one the majority of tours take you to. It was called El Geyser Blanco and we had to hike down and it was like a river. I was expecting a small body of water or something but yeah, in the little section we got to swim in there was little cracks in the earth where the bubbles would come up from and burn the fuck out of your ass but it was awesomeeeee. The water was 42 degrees and so hard to get into because it was only about 10 degrees outside lol I was the only one wearing shorts but it really wasn't that cold at that point. Seriously stunning. Lol if I was ever to get married, I would want to be proposed to in a place like that <3
Other things that happened wereeeee, hmm. Mum twisted her ankle and dislocated her finger on the first stop of the first tour so I did the rest on my own which was much better ^.^
There was lots of awesome restuarants, and some terrible. I ate guanco! Which is a relative of the llama, it tasted a lot like goat. Heaps of quinoa as well. The food there was a lot better prepared than in Santiago or La Serena, all the toursits lol.
Oh we're already landing. Boo I haven't even started on what happened when I got back to La Serena XD
Anyway I'll keep going from the hotel.
And I'm at the hotel!
So as I was saying, San Pedro wa beautiful and sharing with Ricardo and his muso friends made the trip special. I'm glad mums got contacts in heaps of places, just touring is boring so hopefully here in Peru we do okay despite not knowing anyone.
When we left San Pedro we had to stay 2 days/1 night in Santiago to go pick up my passport from the Brazilian Consulate and try to buy a few more things + get my Cuban tourist visa card sorted. Mum was a ball of nerves again, getting over that attitude now =.= She always used to be in charge and in control but she's just lost it in the last couple years. I dislike seeing her act so incompetent because I know what she's capable of but hey maybe she is just getting old...but come onnnn, she's only 44. Everything ended up working out in Santiago luckily with no hiccups this time. We stayed at that same hostel because it was so centrally located.
We went to this mall in one of the more affluent neighborhood and holyyyyymcrap. Like I keep saying, this country is mental. Its so wierd seeing the extremes. It was called Mall Sport so most of the shops were hiking/sporting/active gear. It was only 2 floors but it was hella kool, it had an indoor high ropes course, indoor go-karting, toddlers play area with mechanised inflatable rides, indoor rock climbing, indoor remote-control race track, hiring out of rollerskates and there was more outside D= Outside they had constructed a pool to canoe in, and they also had a skate park and wave/surf pool. It's just so odddddd seeing how differently the wealthy people look, speak and behave compared to the masses. I went there to buy crocs *gags* I was reading that in Costa Rica hiking shoes weren't always ideal because there's a lot of water activities and rain and shoes never dry, so I bought some ballet flats. While I was there I figured I may as well get my main backpack and daypack. Unfortunatly I wasn't able to find a hybrid backpack here that had a detachable daypack but oh well. I've been using it since yesterday and damn it's hard on the shoulders, I was debating for ages if I should just stay with a suitcase but a few of the reviews of the tours said suitcases made life harder what with shitty roads and no one around to help you during transfers and things.
While we were in Santiago we also met up with my uncle and aunty again, the musicians. My uncle plays the violin and his wife plays the Cello. I'm excited, they finally offered to let me stay the night with them the day before I have to fly to Cuba so YAY I don't need to pay for a hotel. They also invited me to watch them perform which just happens to be the night before I fly out xD They took us to this fantastic Italian restaurant which was such a good change of pace, I'm getting over eating the same thing over and over again. The lasagne omg, best I've had in over a decade, and the bread so crunchy and soft on the inside <3
I like my uncle and aunt, they're sooo...authentically boho. Intellectuals who like art, even their home reflects it, covered in paintings done by my aunt and all these little knick knacks.
As soon as we flew back into La Serena we continued with the nonstop. That same night, even though we had been up since 6am, we went to La Pampilla at like midnight. It's chile's biggest festival held to celebrate the 18th of september, Chiles Independence day. People reallllly go nuts for this, there's some INTENSE patriotism at work here. I've been here since the 4th of Sept and already there was flags everywhere, houses, cars, street signs. Everywhere you go they're playing quecas which is officially Chile's national music/dance but it's not really played much throughout the year, reggeaton and cumbia tends to dominate more. So I went with my mum and I was so not in the mood, I was heaps tired and meh. So many people, but in the last week I ended up going 3 seperate times. It's a nice environment though, so much less restricted than in Australia. They're not fussy with id for alcohol, and everyone is drinking all day and night and you can take your drinks anywhere in the fest and it's not a problem. Lol the amount of weed I could I smell in the air. There are cops patroling but as long as you're not starting shit they don't care, for this one week at least. They have heaps of stalls where they sell clothes/accessories for cheaper, and a bajillion food stalls to choose from. Plus they have a few different stages/tents set up to dance in. SO MUCH FUN. Oh and a big rides section but I never went to it while the rides were open.
We spent the whole week with family. Wednesday 18th we went to my other cousins place and they had a big family bbq which was lovely. I never get to go to family events in Aus. It's why I've always enjoyed going to friends/boyfriends family functions. I like seeing the dynamics. Lot's of drinking all week, I see where I get it from haha...but tbh I think it's just a Chilean thing in general. Drink of choice has been Terremotos : earthquakes. Apparently it's gotten hugely trendy in the last 2 years and originated from the south of chile. I explained in a previous post that it was wine with ice cream but i was wrongggg. It's pinapple ice cream, grenadine and this type of sweet white wine called
pipeño. Traditionally what has always been drunk for the 18th was a drink called Chicha which I also tried of course. It's like a really sweet wine. Wiki says: In Chile there are two main types of chicha: apple chicha produced in southern Chile and grape chicha produced in central Chile. Both are alcoholic beverages with no distillation, only fermentation. Chicha is mostly consumed in the countryside and during festivities, such as Fiestas Patrias on September 18. Chicha is usually not found on formal supermarkets unless close to September 18
There's been sooo much meat this week D= Staples of this week: Asado, chorizo, fierritos (shishkebabs), empanadas. Alwaysss with the same sides of garden salad, rice, chips or potatoe salad (just potatoes and mayo). Tasty but gahhh. ALWAYS THE SAME. I tried something I hadn't seen before which was tasty but I forget what it was called, they fry up sausages, onion and olives on a grill and then give that to you with chips and a runny fried egg. IS GOOD. But I'm so glad I came in September, what better way to soak up what makes Chile unique than to come during September when everyone is celebrating what it is to be Chilean.
The best one though was Friday night. We went to La Pampilla with some cousins and their friends. SUCH A GOOD NIGHT. The day started off poorly though coz I had to visit my grandad on my dad's side for his birthday. Obviously I'm not close to them but I did okay the other night and it was just meant to be dnner and then I knew I was going to have to bail to go to the fest. They invited my mum along to his birthday, my grandparents have some fucked up notion that my mum is still their daughter in law and just make shit awkward. A lot of my dads brothers/sisters were there and that family just ...is fuckery. Especially one of my auntys. She started saying my family were traitors for having left the country which did not fly with my mum, that's hella insulting after everything that my family fought for and did to try and end the dictatorship. Especially coming from her, someone who did nothing until the system had already been desatablised after my family left, and after it was already legal to be affiliated with any kind of political party. She's a fucking cunt. Then it became a bitch fest about my dad which got worse and worse with my mum there. Just all sooooo inappropriate. With my aunty and mum arguing hardout for like an hour at the table with everyone just sitting there. Then Rommy, my aunty started going on about how it was my mums fault that my dad ended up with his current psychotic ladyfriend and that my mum should have tried harder and all this bullshit. There was soooo many low blows. Things that should just not have been discussed, including shaddy shit like mentions of prostitution =.= If you know me, you should know that I don't do confrontation so as expected I kept my mouth shut until Rommy was just being too much of a cunt and I started agreeing and backing up my mum but she just wouldnt listen or stop aggravating the sitch. Eventually my grandad half heartedly tried to change the subject but Rommy kept going so I excused myself and stormed off. It was all masively dramatic with me walking home alone crying and then my mum chasing after me in true latina style. So what I've gathered from that experience is: fuck my dads family, deleting and blocking on fb and I'll go visit my grandad a few more times before leaving as long as no one else is over.
Lol so I got back to the apartment where my cousins where all waiting to hang out and party and there I was, this crying wreck and went straight into the toilet and closed the door. They were really sweet though. After a little the mood litened. I didn't feel like going out but mum forced me and in the end I'm glad she did. My cousins arrn't very well off and despite mum giving us all money to go, they were still cheap asses the entire night which was bugging me at first but I just went with it and it all turned out okay. We snuck into the festival lol and then they wouldn't pay for drinks inside so we left again for the bottlo and snuck alco in and ended up drinking at the bleachers with all the other youngins. I was kinda annoyed and bored at this point because I just wanted to get into one of the fondas, which is where you dance but have to pay to get in. So we sat around drinking but that was still fun, there was soooo many people and a group of dudes playing the drums the enitre time and people dancing around them. Haha almost lost my mind when my cousins and their friends started freestyling and beatboxing haha. They come from the worst, most dangerous neighborhood in the area so they're all real...G *coughwestycough* and act all tough and shit haha it was fun. THEY WERE SO GOOD TOO. At one point one of their friends said he knew how to get into the biggest fonda so off we went and spent like 30mins trying to sneak in haha, which failed, thank god! He said we would have to jump a fence and even my cousins were like...errrrrrrr is she going to be able to do this, their friend was all, she'll be fineeee, it's only 1.5m high. BULLSHIT. When we got to the fence it was obvious I wouldn't be able to do that haha but luckily I didn't even have to attempt it because I saw a bunch of security sneakily watching us and stopped the guys from jumping before we got into trouble lol. The entire time though I was like, GAH i can pay for you! Eventually they finally let me pay but we still had to sneak the grog in haha which worked out fine and we danceddddd and it was lovely. The night wasn't over yet though lol.
I had gone outside with my cousin because he wanted to smoke and we were standing behind a truck and the area was pretty secluded and these two chicks came by and kicked us out for a little bit coz they wanted to pee. So when they were done we went back to our spot and these two massive dudes show up, clearly drunk and agro and started accusing my cousin of having touched one of the girls pussies D= and they started shoving into us but luckily the girls came back and pulled them away from us and they left. But damnnnn, my cousin was already drunk at this point and he lost it lol he was totally on edge and ready to fight and had a goddamn glass bottle up his sleeve the entire time as he's ranting about wanting to find them and glass them. Luckily it was like 5:30am by then and the Fonda had closed so we round up our group and headed for the taxi's while I tried to calm down my cousin. I just wanted to get him out of there quickly, he was too on edge and ready to start shit and there were fights breaking out everywhere. Luckily we made it out okay and then spent 30mins trying to get into the apartment because I didnt have the street key, eventually one of my cousins who stayed the night heard the rocks I was pelting at the wall and came down and opened the door for us. All in all though, killer night haha. I guess I need some drama to enjoy myself =P
So then yesterday we flew into Santiago..AGAIN, and stayed at the hotel across from the airport which was lovelyyyy, and then in the morning today we flew to Peru. Gah we almost missed the connecting domestic flight to Cuzco though because there was only an hour between flights but we made ittttt. GAH the altitude though, you can really feel it up here. I still have a bit of a headache and your heart starts racing with really minimal exertion. I can't wait to come back down again. Last time I got back from the desert I felt so lite and fit after living at altitiude for the weekend hehe. This time we're like 1.5km up higher so it'll be good being back at a decent altitude. Tomorrow we do the sacred valley and tuesday machu picchu!!
As for now, mums napping and I'm going to do the same before we head off somewhere for dinner.
PS: seriously impressed if you managed to read all of that =P
FREE WIFI fuck yeahhhh. I'll be posting!
xx
