We started our day with the routine not wanting to get out of bed. Tom arose at 10 to 8 as we were supposed to get the 9 bus to Santiago but there was not a chance of the rest of us getting out of bed so we decided to get the 10:30 bus. We were all delighted! It reminded me of Father Doughal in Father Ted when he said to Ted “another great lie in for the lads”. We grabbed a quick breakfast consisting of croissants and more croissants with caramel sauce. We had a short taxi ride to the bus station where we booked our tickets for our 7 hour bus(we thought) and searched the departure lane. This time there was no need for the more expensive seats as we wanted to enjoy the scenery.
We crossed right through the heart of the rocky, snow covered Andes mountains and gasped at the sheer scale and beauty. As we headed towards the Chilean border it began to get a bit colder. We pulled up right before the checkpoint and we waiting on the bus for two hours for some unknown reason. We would later find out that we were waiting all that time because some idiot American had an orange in her bag which they we told about on numerous occasions just as we had been. She was fined all the money she had on her which was US$600. I think she deserved it for making us wait all that time on the bus for a stupid orange. Because of this delay we knew we had no chance of making the Chile v Argentina game. After another hour of waiting to get our passports stamped we descended from the highest point of the Andes and we were back on our way to Santiago. When we arrived in Santiago bus station we had two taxi drivers fighting over who would bring the “gringos” to their hotel. Upon arrival at our hostel we were told we were at the wrong one but thankfully we were only a short walk from our real hostel.
We walked the streets of Santiago looking for a restaurant and we were mobbed by crazy but friendly Chilean football supporters shouting chants in Spanish. Chile had beaten Argentina 1-0. It was a massive win for them, the first time the have beaten them in recent memory. We proceeded to the nearby restaurants and ate easily the worst meal of our trip so far. The dodgiest looking burgers you’ve ever seen.
When we left we were once again stopped by a drunk Chilean who clearly wasn’t listening to a word we said because we said we didn’t speak Spanish on multiple occasions, in multiple languages.
It was now time to get some sleep as we had a big day of sightseeing in Santiago tomorrow.
We crossed right through the heart of the rocky, snow covered Andes mountains and gasped at the sheer scale and beauty. As we headed towards the Chilean border it began to get a bit colder. We pulled up right before the checkpoint and we waiting on the bus for two hours for some unknown reason. We would later find out that we were waiting all that time because some idiot American had an orange in her bag which they we told about on numerous occasions just as we had been. She was fined all the money she had on her which was US$600. I think she deserved it for making us wait all that time on the bus for a stupid orange. Because of this delay we knew we had no chance of making the Chile v Argentina game. After another hour of waiting to get our passports stamped we descended from the highest point of the Andes and we were back on our way to Santiago. When we arrived in Santiago bus station we had two taxi drivers fighting over who would bring the “gringos” to their hotel. Upon arrival at our hostel we were told we were at the wrong one but thankfully we were only a short walk from our real hostel.
We walked the streets of Santiago looking for a restaurant and we were mobbed by crazy but friendly Chilean football supporters shouting chants in Spanish. Chile had beaten Argentina 1-0. It was a massive win for them, the first time the have beaten them in recent memory. We proceeded to the nearby restaurants and ate easily the worst meal of our trip so far. The dodgiest looking burgers you’ve ever seen.
When we left we were once again stopped by a drunk Chilean who clearly wasn’t listening to a word we said because we said we didn’t speak Spanish on multiple occasions, in multiple languages.
It was now time to get some sleep as we had a big day of sightseeing in Santiago tomorrow.
Stay Classy,
Mike Ryan
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