Santiago, he who supplants...

Most adventures involve inclimate weather of some sort. While rain may not be a central character like the Tornado was for Dorothy, it sure makes a story better. Maybe worse for the adventurers, but definitely better for the story.

It is then, no surprise that I woke up from dozing off on the bus to Santiago to find rain streaming down the window beside me. I sighed softly and wished that if I just closed my eyes and reopened them it would turn sunny.

I’d forgotten my jacket when I left Viña and had been working on letting that fact go by reading The Alchemist. I’d only dozed off for a moment when the mountain mist turned to rain. I knew though that the story could only be better with rain, so it was here to stay. Who among you would prefer sunshiny days filled with apartment seekers and tourist sites over me, jacketless, sans umbrella and with only one pair of jeans for the weekend trudging around Santiago and meeting people who could potentially be my roomies for the next 2.5 months? I mean, that latter story is interesting. The former, just another travel blog.

The metro was pretty easy and though I’m not sure how much I paid for my ticket - deciding to end my unsuccessful attempt at getting a one day pass by handing the woman a 10,000 peso note and saying "OK. Uno solo." She returned a pile of change and a small paper ticket. The turnstile ate my little ticket but others around me didn’t appear alarmed when the machines didn’t regurgitate theirs so I moved on.

First thoughts? The metro in Rome has nothing on Santiago. In Rome I thought I had transformed into a sardine italiano, but Santiago is all together another level. First off, there are very few seats. The metro cars seem to be designed for standing. And that’s what people do. Stand. Wedged together. For a long time. And this was at 9:00 am on a Saturday - not even Monday morning rush hour.

Refreshingly, the Santiago trains have windows that open and I was fortunate to have fresh air circulating by me while we were above ground. Even in the underground part and moments we were still, the metro didn’t stink. When I said sardines about Rome I did mean in all regards. Here though, even the guy whose arm stretched up to the handle dangling from the ceiling above my head didn’t stink. And his pit was damn close to my nose. Maybe that whole no rushing around thing has its merits.

I arrived soaked and dripping at my hostel, Newen Kara, which in the Mapuche language means Urban Force. Fortunately I was able to check into my room early. After about 30 minutes of blow-drying my hair, scarf, sweatshirt, sweater, jeans, socks and purse, I thanked myself for spending money on such a spectacular blow-dryer. It folds in half and comes with a pouch for easy travel. First purchase in Chile - worth every peso.

Diego, the wildly enthusiastic and charming young man who worked the front desk at Newen Kara, let me borrow a large and slightly bent up umbrella and I was off to meet John. I met John in June in Chicago taking the TEFL certification class. He’d just arrived 2 weeks earlier and is going to be teaching mostly Business English classes in Santiago. John needs an apartment too, so I asked if he wanted to come along with me to visit the places I’d found.

We had 7 apartments scheduled on Saturday and another on Sunday. Noteworthy mentions:

• “Paris-Londres” located in Santiago Centro an older part of town. The streets are cobble stone and the architecture glorious. After being buzzed in through a huge wrought iron gate, we followed Ellen up a stone spiral staircase to a lovely apartment in which lived 2 American girls and 2 German girls. The room was excellent with a view onto the courtyard below. An apartment of boys live on the ground level and they often have barbecues together. Negatives: 170,000 CLP/month (about $340), several blocks from the metro, not in the #1 neighborhood.
• “Bright sunny room” located in Providencia (#1 Neighborhood), directly across the street from the metro. Roomies would be 1 Asian girl who didn’t speak while we were there and Maria Eugenia who wasn’t home. The room was huge with 2 twin beds pushed to make 1 big one, a big desk, big closets, big windows and big blue walls painted with sunflowers and trees. Negatives: 180,000 CLP/month (about $360), very very quiet.
• Spanish Speaking Pablo. Room share in Chilean artist’s apartment/art studio. Negatives: Spoke only Spanish, Room share in Chilean artist’s apartment/art studio.
• “Bellas Artes” located across the river from the nearest metro stop, this place was out of the race before the start gun fired. When we got lost a few blocks away and passed one of those specialty shops that in France are usually only located by the train station, I started trying to calculate how tall John was in my head and wondered whether the bent metal part of my umbrella would be useful should night fall before we located the apartment. One cell phone call and our wrong turns made right, the apartment turned out to be funkyartsyretrocool. Though, I decided I myself am neither funky, artsy, retro, nor cool enough to live in a place like that.
• JP “The Winner”. Jean-Pierre’s apartment is in the #1 neighborhood by the #1 metro stop. The apartment is literally steps from the metro and 2 blocks from an excellent bar with excellent Chilean beer. JP is an English teacher and translator. He grew up in Canada and his parents are Chilean. He speaks Spanish, French and English. He was wearing giant slippers that were the colors of the Chilean National team, whose big match to qualify for the World Cup was that night. JP has 2 rooms, a small one with a private bathroom and another larger with a Jack and Jill bathroom he’d share. Prices 120,000 and 150,000 respectively! When we left I said, “What was wrong with that place? I can’t figure it out.” John said, “That’s because there is nothing wrong with it. It’s perfect.”

It had stopped raining by then. The sun was out. I knew my #1 choice. We had dinner at a bar full of cheering Chileans where we watched Chile beat Columbia qualifying to be in the World Cup for the first time in ages. We ended the evening in a great “American” bar with beer (that I really liked!) while college football games were streamed real-time on big flat screen TVs (eh… football). The next morning we visited a museum, ate at this big fish market, and went up San Cristobal Hill where we saw the zoo and a shrine to Mary.

I LOVE Santiago! I knew early on in my weekend, whilst jumping puddles and dodging curb spray from passing buses, that I was in the right place. I love concrete. I love exhaust. I love mass transportation. I love cities. Santiago is about 6 million people. It’s polluted and busy and worlds away from the rainbow sprinkle cup cake hills of Valparaiso or the shiny beachy quiet of Viña. Rain or no rain, crazy concrete lover that I am, I say Santiago is underrated. We’ll see if I’m whistling the same tune after living there for a while, but for now, my vote is in. The big city it is... for 2.5 months anyway!

You can see pictures of my weekend in Santiago here.