Back In Santiago
We returned to Santiago on our way north from Pucon to the Atacama after parting ways with Ben. We planned to stay for one to two days, oh were we in for a surprise! We hopped on a bus in Pucon early on Monday morning; we were scheduled to arrive in Santiago at 6:30 and our CouchSurfing host had left us meeting instructions in my email. Our bus was slow or something because we didn't arrive until after 8 PM and quickly sought out the closest internet cafe to check for instructions from Daniel. It turned out that he had offered to meet us at the metro station near his house at 7:15, Obviously we didn't show, as I was replying to his message with apologies and explanations he emailed again, he would meet us at the metro at 9:45. Emboldened by this bit of good news we set off six metro stops down the red line to wait for him.
Our first night we dropped our packs off at Daniel's apartment and hit some local bars with Daniel and another CouchSurfer from England. Large beers and cheap pizza made the miles of our bus journey seem like a far away dream. We returned to Daniel's and fell into sleep.
The next day started out great, we went to a local market that we hadn't known about before. We heard it was the best place for seafood downtown and it did not disappoint! Jammie had the most amazing seafood soup and I just said yes to the waitresses question and ended up with the most succulent piece of fried fish I had ever had. Wandering away from the market we looked for a place to get out of the heat so we came up with the bright idea to see a movie at the theater around the corner from Daniel's. They actually had three movies playing in English so we felt a bit spoiled for choice. We saw Operation Valkyrie about the largest assassination plot against Hitler. It was exciting and tragic since you knew before hand that the plot was doomed to failure.
Next we headed back to Santa Lucia to see the parts we had missed before when we were forcibly ejected for swilling wine in public. This hill park, garden, maze is almost indescribable. It is like something that MC Escher would design if he were given a public works project. Jutting up for the city streets this mass of bedrock is covered with twisting staircases, passages, half ruined fortress type constructions and hanging gardens. From the very top you can get a 360 degree view of Santiago. Feeling pretty good we went to check out a bar we had passed on our way to Santa Lucia. It turned out to be an awesome little hole in the wall with tons of local Chilean microbrews and great atmosphere.
Next we headed to a cafe with WiFi to get some internet work done and check email. After this we decided that we had seen some more great parts of Santiago, but we should start planning our move north. We jumped on the crowded Metro to go to the bus station. This is where it all fell apart. I was robbed on the subway and lost passport, cash and ATM card to a pick pocket. To get the full story of the events that unfolded check out the video we posted "El Ladron del Passaporte."
In any case our two nights in Santiago turned into four as we scrambled to recover. We ultimately succeeded in getting back on our feet and began busing it north to the Atacama desert.