I believe I left off with my arrival in Santiago from Peru. OK.
Where did the day go?
After my panicking about missing flights and/or having to run through the airport at Lima, I arrived safely in Santiago, capital of Chile, at a ridiculous time on Saturday morning. Passport stamped, I managed to get a shuttle into the city after another moment of panic when my card wouldn't work - note to self: it helps if I remember to tell my bank where I am.To my sleepy delight, my bed was available when I checked in to the hostel just before 8am. I crawled under the sheets, figuring I'd snooze for a few hours and then in search of food and things to do.
When I finally woke up, having slept through a whole series of alarms, it was nearly 4pm. Oops. It is a very long time since I've slept a whole day away like that. And I was still knackered. Fortunately for me, it was pasta night at the hostel, so I spent the rest of the evening mooching and chatting with the other folks. I should maybe not have drunk the two glasses of red wine with my pasta, but hey, I was already sleepy so it didn't make that much difference.
Donde esta el museo?
A delightful roommate woke me up at 4am, complete with slamming the door and turning the lights on. Ugh.On the plus side, Hostal Providencia provides an excellent breakfast, so I stuffed my face with fresh bread and that delicious cereal that turns the milk chocolatey that I haven't had since I was little.
Happily full, I scanned the web for things to see in Santiago and settled on the regional museum. Off I tramped, getting a little bit lost along the way, before ending up in the Plaza de Armas. Right. So where's the museum? Should be facing the Plaza. Can't find it. There's a sign for it, but the gate is shut and locked. How odd.
At the time, I thought maybe I was looking in the wrong place. Afterwards, I discovered there was an enormous strike going on in Chile and I'd clearly just timed it wrong.
Foiled by the closed museum and with no idea what else to go and prod, I returned to the hostel in the hopes of booking a bus to Chiloe for the following week. All went well - I managed to navigate the site in Spanish, select my bus, my seat got as far as the payment page...
Declined. What? At this point, I still hadn't realised I'd forgotten to tell my bank I was in Chile. So I tried my other card. Also declined.
Buggeration. Fine, I thought, I'll just try again tomorrow. I sat down to plan some writing instead, what with NaNoWriMo fast approaching. I can't remember what I wrote, but the note in my journal just says "writing fail". Oops. This is followed by the comment "FAIL DAY :)"
Clearly I was in an odd mood.
Spanish success!
On the Monday morning, I had planned to go on a free walking tour. I slept in instead. It was glorious. Plus, I still woke up in time to partake of the lovely breakfast. Nom.Having missed the walking tour and with only a couple of days until I needed to get to Chiloe, I decided to take a stroll to the bus terminal in the hope of booking my ticket in person. Armed with Google Translate (just in case), I approached the desk, staffed by two friendly looking ladies.
Me: el autobus para Ancud?
Ticket ladies: *confused*
Me: *realises the C in Ancud is hard - Ankud not Ansud* er... Ancud?
Ticket ladies: *no longer confused, polite nodding*
Me: um... Jueves?
OK, so my Spanish is broken, poorly pronounced (on occasion) and I mostly make do with using the few words I know in new ways. But in this case, it worked. Success! I had a ticket to Ancud and I hadn't used a word of English. Well done, me.
Ticket booked, I figured I might as well have another wander around the city centre in the hopes of finding something to do. Yeah, that didn't happen. I ended up in Starbucks, where I once again had to spell my name for the guy at the counter because Spanish speakers really struggle with Zoe. It's just a name that doesn't work very well with Spanish pronunciation rules.
Back at the hostel, I apparently wrote a lot, going by the journal note that reads "WRITE ALL THE THINGS :)". So far, my time in Santiago was shaping up to be very chilled out and amazingly, the travel bit of my brain wasn't guilt tripping me about not doing much. Maybe I was still recovering from the bug that had screwed up my time in Arequipa...
Oh god, they're everywhere
The following morning, I once again had such a leisurely breakfast that I missed the walking tour. Ah well, I'd found other things to do, beginning with a beautiful stroll in the sunshine through Parque Forestal.
This led me straight up to El Museo del Bellas Artes, which is a great place. Some really interesting pieces, although I will admit that I laughed at the expression on this San Sebastian.
The only drawback was the fact that the museum was crawling with school groups who seemed to appear out of nowehere every time I found a quiet spot. Even the main hall, host to this odd disembodied ship, was not safe.
Having spent a good couple of hours perusing the collections, I made myself comfy on a bench outside in the sun, away from the annoying children and tried to find my inner artist. This largely consisted of drawing different houses for all of the cultures that I've been working on for the upcoming NaNoWriMo. I think I should stick to writing - drawing has never been my forte. Still, it was lovely to sit in the sun for a while.
The NaNoWriMo theme continued when I got back to the hostel, resulting in lots of rambling about plot and character creation. My planning sessions have a habit of getting a bit too in depth. For example, I'm not entirely sure why I really need to know what sort of boats are used across the different regions of my fictional world. But I worked it out anyway...
Free museum? What is this madness?
Still too fond of my bed and the delicious breakfast to get up early enough for the walking tour, I took myself to the Centro Cultural La Moneda on Wednesday morning. There I found an excellent exhibition of artefacts from China's Forbidden City and, because I arrived before midday, it was free!I've missed free museums. There were some really beautiful pieces in the exhibition, my favourites including this tiny teapot.
And this badly photographed sword, mostly for the fact that it had a jade grip, which isn't something I've seen on swords before.
Taking photos of all the military objects definitely wasn't anything to do with inspiration for writing...
The centre is also home to a shop (and accompanying exhibition) of artesan crafts from the Aymara and Mapuche peoples of Chile. Oddly, I don't think I have any photos from in there, but the range of colours you can get on alpacas is pretty amazing and that's even before the wool is dyed.
My notes for the day then say "probably more NaNoing." I promise, NaNoWriMo isn't taking over my life in any way, shape or form. Definitely not...
I get breakfast?!
My final day in Santiago was something of a write off. I did nothing all morning, strolled to the city centre around lunch time, did a bit of Christmas shopping (woo, organised) and then returned to the hostel to write away the afternoon.At 7:30pm, I arrived back at the bus terminal, far too early for my bus and proceeded to watch every single bus for Ancud like a hawk, just in case it was mine. When it finally turned up, I was surprised to find it so roomy. I'd booked the cheapest option - just a standard coach. But it had legroom. Decent legroom. And curtains. And a conductor who came around first to ask if I wanted breakfast in the morning and later to give me a blanket and pillow.
Breakfast? Oh my. So I actually slept well, not the broken sleep I've previously experienced on overnight buses.
Where did the sun go?
The following morning, the conductor duly appeared with my breakfast - a ham sandwich and a glass of coffee. I don't like coffee, but like a genius I'd forgotten to fill my water bottle before I left Santiago. With no other options for hydration, I drank it. Through a straw, for some reason...And found that, actually, it wasn't too bad. It was relatively sweet, which might have had something to do with it.
After a short stop in Puerto Montt, the bus trundled onwards to Chiloe, Chile's largest island. A quick hop on the RO-RO ferry and then on to the town of Ancud in the island's north west. The weather, which had been great in Santiago and, indeed, at Puerto Montt, took a turn for the wet.
Admittedly, when I finally got off the nice comfy bus in Ancud, the rain had stopped, but it was overcast and just a little bit nippy. I spent the rest of the morning sheltering in the hostel before wenturing out in search of groceries.
I also found that the hostel has an awesome room with beautiful views over the bay.
It immediately became my writing room. It was warm, quiet and had good views. What wasn't there to love? Of course, that meant I spent the entire afternoon doing planning for NaNoWriMo yet again. Oops. In my defence, it got a bit yucky in Ancud again later on...
All right, so my first week in Chile was much like my last week in Peru - very laid back and not hugely exciting. But I did see and do things. I'm not sure the same will be said for next week - NaNoWriMo has a habit of taking over my brain.
And will the weather improve on Chiloe?
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