Beautiful Mountains and Freezing Weather!

After 17 hours of traveling (to Cuenca bus terminal, to Guayaquil in bus, to airport in taxi, to Lima in plane, to Santiago in plane), I arrived in Santiago at 3am Sun night/Mon morning. It is good to be here, but it will definitely take time to adapt. Here's what I've experienced and observed so far...

It's cold! Very cold! The first day it got up to about 55 and was in the low 40's at night. I can handle cold, but I handle cold with a jacket, gloves, and a hat! I think I will be wearing the same fleece every day for the next month. What is beautiful about Santiago is being fully surrounded by looming, snow-capped mountains. It's also expensive, although I knew that would be the case. Must to find job! The Spanish isn't as hard to understand as I thought, although I've mostly been interacting with people in the service industry. I think Chileans my age use a lot more slang.

In the shared taxi from the airport to my hostel Sun night, I started talking with a Peruvian guy named Stuart who had also been on my flight. He is here for work and is staying in a friend's apartment. His friend was going to show him around the city, so he invited me to go along with them, which was very kind of him. So on Monday we did a whirlwind tour of the city: took the funicular up Cerro San Cristobal, entered the presidential palace La Moneda (which doesn't actually house the president anymore), tasted mote con huesillo (a delicious drink of peach nectar and barley kernels), climbed Cerro Santa Lucia (which Darwin climbed in the 1800's), went to Plaza de Armas in dowtown Santiago, wandered around an artisan market, and ate at a Peruvian restaurant. An accomplished Day 1.

Yesterday was Chile's Independence Day (from Spain in 1810), and while many people leave town because they have a 5-day weekend, there was still a lot going on. In the middle of the day I took the metro (by myself! and even switched lines and didn't get lost!) to Stuart's house. After a desperate search of places to eat (everything was closed because of the holiday), we managed to find a little Argentinian storefront selling empanadas, which are a staple snack here. Then we met up with his friend Roberto, who is also Peruvian but has been living in Chile for a year. We went to Parque O'Higgins (who was a military figure central to Chile's independence), where everyone and their brother was hanging out. We witnessed the famous Chilean cueca dance (all day I thought everyone was talking about Cuenca, but it was not so) and then bussed to La Plaza Nunoa. It was like a carnival and had tons of fondas, which are open-air restaurant type places where you eat meat, drink beer, and listen to local music (no, I don't think you can be a vegetarian here). It was quite bizarre to see red, white, and blue everywhere (the colors of the Chilean flag) because for me those colors have a somewhat negative connotation. We also played fusbol! All in all, I would say it was a pretty good day. It was nice to only be speaking Spanish, and I was touched by the Peruvians' kindness in immediately including me in their plans.

Today I walked around with a girl from England named Hannah. We were having a fine time until she got mugged a couple minutes after leaving an ice cream shop...and in broad daylight with lots of people around. Terribly scary and unsettling. She was wearing a gold necklace that didn't have any monetary value, only sentimental value (although of course a thief can't see that from far away). He grabbed her by the neck and ripped the necklace off, and she chased after him to no avail. More than she was upset about the necklace, she was very shaken by the incident, as was I. I don't think I'm a naive traveler, but I was suprised that that happens in the middle of the afternoon in a place with many people. I guess it was a good wake-up call but unsettling all the same. Hannah was okay luckily, and we filed a report with the police.

The day improved, and tonight I went out to eat with six other people from the hostel-from Germany, Brazil, England, Argentina, Ireland, and Australia. There is a great comaraderie among people staying here and a real desire to get to know one another and hear each other's story. It's great to have people that relate to traveling/exploring the world, although I have yet to meet anyone who's come to stay here like I have! It's kind of like college in a sense because you're living in dorms, there's a common room, you often eat together, and people are looking to make friends. And as of last night, I have three nice Brazilian roommates (apparently all the Brazilians come here to see the snow and ski outside of Santiago).

It's definitely been an adjustment being in Santiago. I think it's been more of a change coming here from Cuenca than it would have been coming here from the States. It's a big difference to go from living with a family in a city that I know where I have people I'm connected with to living in a hostel in a city I don't know yet and where I'm still finding my place. I waver between feeling unsettled and at peace with this new adventure. I thrive on structure and planning, so I'm pleasantly suprised that I have been able to just go with the flow and figure one day out at a time. It's exciting to be starting this journey, but I also look forward to the time when I have a consistent place to live and work and a sense of purpose. Who knows what I'll have done by the next time I write! Looking forward to hearing from you too