Day 85: Santiago de Chile

Yesterday we arrived in Santiago, Chile, which means we left Argentina. Argentina can actually be summarized relatively easily: empanadas, which I quickly learned to love wholeheartedly, platform shoes that every woman of every age wears in every imaginable form here, and mate tea, which every Argentine always carries with him wherever he goes, in his extra bag, including a thermos flask and a special drinking cup.

After a 5-hour, actually beautiful, bus ride over the Andes, of which we spent 2 hours at the border, we arrived at the terminal in Santiago and, as always, had the problem: no money, no internet, no plan. After an hour of panic and mutual annoyance, we were lucky that the security officer at the metro station had so much pity on us that he let us ride the metro for free. First problem solved. We were now near our hostel, but still didn't know exactly where to go. We wandered around for two hours, being sent to every possible corner, until we found a nice lady, who took us directly to our hostel. The hostel was located on the 6th floor of a huge building complex on Plaza de Armas, the most central and loudest point in Santiago. Of course, without any indication that there was even a hostel in the building. After a pack of cookies from the hostel shop, we went to bed exhausted.

This morning after breakfast, we went on one of the many 'free walking tours'. Since we didn't want to spend much time in Santiago, this was probably the best way to see and learn as much as possible about the city. For dinner, we went back to one of the recommended restaurants to eat something typical Chilean, 'chorillana', and to drink 'piscosour & terremoto'.