Over the whole robbery-confusion I totally forgot to write about our latest discovery! Completos! A sausage in a hotdog bun topped with fresh tomatos, avocado, tons of mayonaise and ketchup! It tastes awesome and costs only 500 Pesos (about $1) It's what I'll be missing on the hike in Torres del Paine NP. We'll be having rice, pasta and instant soup, all over again for about 10 days!
We've also been trying the weirdest icecream flavours at Bravissimo, the best icecram place in Santiago! My last one was "arroz con leche" (Milchreis!) Different but tasty!
Our 3-hour flight down to Punta Arenas (Patagonia) was pretty crazy, I think I've experienced the worst turbulences ever! Normally that stuff doesn't freak me out but this was quite scary. The plane kept shaking and bouncing for several minutes and a woman close to us kept shrieking "ah - aaahh - aahh!!!" They also played this really creepy music on the plane - stuff that they play in movies right before a plane crashes. Maybe not the best strategy to calm the passengers down!
After one night in Punta Arenas we took the bus to Puerta Natales, a little town that lives from tourism since it's the last town before entering the National Park. It's a lot colder down here and windy as hell! I'm really glad now I had my mum sending my warmer sleeping bag. I would have probably froze to death in my old one.
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Valparaiso, Chile - not the safest place to be in ;)
We got robbed yesterday while we were exploring Valparaiso, a pretty but apparently more dangerous town on the Chilean coast.
We walked around the city for a bit on a special tourist-walking-track that's supposed to be nice and scenic. We turned into a little sidestreet and walked up a hill where I stopped to take a picture with my digital camera. I was just about to put it back into my backpack when a guy runs up to me from behind, rips the camera out of my hand and takes off. Nigel started chasing after him until we realized that he had an accomplice with him who picked up two bricks and threw them at Nigel.
I was pretty freaked out at that point and just yelled to let them have the camera before somthing more serious happens.
Nigel ended up with a pretty big bleeding bruise on his arm and some scraped off skin on the other wrist.
Everything happend so quickly, it was over within about half a minute and I don't think I've realized at that point what had just happened. If I rewind the situation in my head now I wish I would have yelled at them: Arschloecher,fucking bastards, puta madre... but I was too perplex to say anything!
Afterwards we went to the next police office and all they basically did was write a report for my insurance company. The description of the two thieves wasn't really important to them. Nothing they can do about it - that's it!
Kind of disappointing but also understandable if you take into account that things like that happen all the time(one of the police guys told us that approximately 10 robbed tourists come in every day). They were really helpful afterwards though! We got a ride in the police car to the next hospital where Nigel's injuries got taken care of and then the police guys drove us back to our hostel. At first it felt kind of weird, all this special treatment, but they seemed pretty happy to get out of the office for a while since it was Nigel and me and then 3 police officers.
I don't care about the stolen camera that much since I'll probably get the money back from my insurance. The thing that really bothers me though is the whole set up! The guy was dressed all nicely, clean clothes, a camera bag over his shoulder - almost like a normal tourist. He walked up the hill in front of us, then fell back a little and sat down on some stairs next to the road (probably to check us out and to wait for the right moment).
The rock-throwing-part also upset me a lot. I imagined what it would have been like if they would have hit Nigel's head and seriously injured him? I wonder if they would have cared.
I was pissed off the whole afternoon and evening (and I still am now when I think about it). I wanted to kick or punch someone really hard and I don't know what would have happened if I would have come across those guys on the street...
Oh well, it could have ended a lot worse and I wasn't expecting to get through my 4 months in South America without anything like that happening.
I'm in fight-mode now whenever something like that happens again ;)(kidding, we actually agreed not to interfere again and just let them take off with the stuff next time)
I'm glad that we're heading down to Patagonia on Friday to go hiking and camping in the wilderness... less chance of getting robbed down there :)
I will still be able to put up pictures online even though it might take a little longer now. I still have my manual FM10 with me and I can have them put the pictures on a CD when I get the roll of film developed.
We walked around the city for a bit on a special tourist-walking-track that's supposed to be nice and scenic. We turned into a little sidestreet and walked up a hill where I stopped to take a picture with my digital camera. I was just about to put it back into my backpack when a guy runs up to me from behind, rips the camera out of my hand and takes off. Nigel started chasing after him until we realized that he had an accomplice with him who picked up two bricks and threw them at Nigel.
I was pretty freaked out at that point and just yelled to let them have the camera before somthing more serious happens.
Nigel ended up with a pretty big bleeding bruise on his arm and some scraped off skin on the other wrist.
Everything happend so quickly, it was over within about half a minute and I don't think I've realized at that point what had just happened. If I rewind the situation in my head now I wish I would have yelled at them: Arschloecher,fucking bastards, puta madre... but I was too perplex to say anything!
Afterwards we went to the next police office and all they basically did was write a report for my insurance company. The description of the two thieves wasn't really important to them. Nothing they can do about it - that's it!
Kind of disappointing but also understandable if you take into account that things like that happen all the time(one of the police guys told us that approximately 10 robbed tourists come in every day). They were really helpful afterwards though! We got a ride in the police car to the next hospital where Nigel's injuries got taken care of and then the police guys drove us back to our hostel. At first it felt kind of weird, all this special treatment, but they seemed pretty happy to get out of the office for a while since it was Nigel and me and then 3 police officers.
I don't care about the stolen camera that much since I'll probably get the money back from my insurance. The thing that really bothers me though is the whole set up! The guy was dressed all nicely, clean clothes, a camera bag over his shoulder - almost like a normal tourist. He walked up the hill in front of us, then fell back a little and sat down on some stairs next to the road (probably to check us out and to wait for the right moment).
The rock-throwing-part also upset me a lot. I imagined what it would have been like if they would have hit Nigel's head and seriously injured him? I wonder if they would have cared.
I was pissed off the whole afternoon and evening (and I still am now when I think about it). I wanted to kick or punch someone really hard and I don't know what would have happened if I would have come across those guys on the street...
Oh well, it could have ended a lot worse and I wasn't expecting to get through my 4 months in South America without anything like that happening.
I'm in fight-mode now whenever something like that happens again ;)(kidding, we actually agreed not to interfere again and just let them take off with the stuff next time)
I'm glad that we're heading down to Patagonia on Friday to go hiking and camping in the wilderness... less chance of getting robbed down there :)
I will still be able to put up pictures online even though it might take a little longer now. I still have my manual FM10 with me and I can have them put the pictures on a CD when I get the roll of film developed.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
From La Serena to Santiago
It´s been so long since I last updated - I don´t even know where to start...
We spent about 4 days in La Serena, a nice town right by the ocean that apparently gets really crowded with people from Santiago in the summer months but was still quiet when we were there.
One of the nights we went to ´Mamalluca´, an amateur observatory which was pretty spectacular. We´ve been told that Chile is one of the best places in the world to observe stars due to the almost perfect sky conditions (clear atmosphere, low humidity etc.)
Unfortunately my camera started acting all weird just when we got there, so no pictures! :( There´s something wrong with the CCD-sensor, a manufacturing defect on some Canon cameras. I found out after a couple of days that when I slam it really hard it starts working again - so that´s my new technique until I´ll get back to Germany and try getting it replaced ;)
Apart from that we went on a tour through Valle de Elqui, famous for its Pisco (typical Chilean liquor made out of grapes) and wine. We got to check out a Pisco factory and a really cute little vineyard (tasting all the different types included). The wine here is so cheap too! It´s great to be able to get a really nice bottle for only about 4€!
Eventually we decided to try and make our way down south to Santiago by hitchhiking and it wasn´t as hard as I expected it to be! After only 20 minutes of waiting we hitched a ride with a really nice guy in his truck: a bumpy 6-hour drive but really nice views of the Chilean coast! He even gave us his number and offered to give us a lift all the way down to Patagonia but we ended up buying a flight instead since it would have been another 30 hours.
We´re staying here in Santiago with the family of Nigel´s sister´s boyfriend and it´s sooooo nice to finally be in a place that has a clean bathroom after a long time of traveling and staying in crappy and disgusting hostels. It starts getting on your nerves after a while when every time you take a shower you struggle with trying not to touch the walls, shower curtain or other disgusting things in a dirty bathroom covered with other people´s hair.
Santiago is also fun cause we got in touch with some friends of friends (thanks Julie for the Eddie-hookup!) that know their way around the city and took us out on the weekend. And in general it´s just a really nice and laid back city despite it´s size.
We saw a group of people dancing in a park to drums, felt a bit like the South American Loveparade version, but was cool to watch.
We´re just planing our trip to Patagonia now and then hop on the plane to get down there in a couple of days. The 19 days of trekking are gonna be tough, especially after lazing around for such a long time... but I´m excited and really looking forward to it!
We spent about 4 days in La Serena, a nice town right by the ocean that apparently gets really crowded with people from Santiago in the summer months but was still quiet when we were there.
One of the nights we went to ´Mamalluca´, an amateur observatory which was pretty spectacular. We´ve been told that Chile is one of the best places in the world to observe stars due to the almost perfect sky conditions (clear atmosphere, low humidity etc.)
Unfortunately my camera started acting all weird just when we got there, so no pictures! :( There´s something wrong with the CCD-sensor, a manufacturing defect on some Canon cameras. I found out after a couple of days that when I slam it really hard it starts working again - so that´s my new technique until I´ll get back to Germany and try getting it replaced ;)
Apart from that we went on a tour through Valle de Elqui, famous for its Pisco (typical Chilean liquor made out of grapes) and wine. We got to check out a Pisco factory and a really cute little vineyard (tasting all the different types included). The wine here is so cheap too! It´s great to be able to get a really nice bottle for only about 4€!
Eventually we decided to try and make our way down south to Santiago by hitchhiking and it wasn´t as hard as I expected it to be! After only 20 minutes of waiting we hitched a ride with a really nice guy in his truck: a bumpy 6-hour drive but really nice views of the Chilean coast! He even gave us his number and offered to give us a lift all the way down to Patagonia but we ended up buying a flight instead since it would have been another 30 hours.
We´re staying here in Santiago with the family of Nigel´s sister´s boyfriend and it´s sooooo nice to finally be in a place that has a clean bathroom after a long time of traveling and staying in crappy and disgusting hostels. It starts getting on your nerves after a while when every time you take a shower you struggle with trying not to touch the walls, shower curtain or other disgusting things in a dirty bathroom covered with other people´s hair.
Santiago is also fun cause we got in touch with some friends of friends (thanks Julie for the Eddie-hookup!) that know their way around the city and took us out on the weekend. And in general it´s just a really nice and laid back city despite it´s size.
We saw a group of people dancing in a park to drums, felt a bit like the South American Loveparade version, but was cool to watch.
We´re just planing our trip to Patagonia now and then hop on the plane to get down there in a couple of days. The 19 days of trekking are gonna be tough, especially after lazing around for such a long time... but I´m excited and really looking forward to it!
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