Chile! - Part 1: Santiago

Better late than never, I thought, and thus you can now read about my weekend trip to Chile.
As there are not international flights leaving Goiania Airport, I had to leave to Sao Paulo first and spend the night there. My flight left here on Friday night and arrived in Sao Paulo Guarulhos International Airport at 21h. Unfortunately I missed my bus into the city by mere two minutes, and had to wait for another 30 until the next would drive me to Congonhas, but if I have learned something in Brasil, waiting is definitely it…
Sandra picked me up in Congonhas and after a quick beer at her apartment we went to have a big and amazing Sushi Dinner. Of course, not without taking a picture and sending it to Kaoru in Tokyo!
We had a lot to talk about so we stayed up nearly all night and I just got half an hour of sleep until at 5am my taxi arrived to bring me back to Congonhas, to take the bus to Guarulhos, to finally board my plane to Santiago de Chile.

I slept the whole four hour flight and when we finally arrived I was all awake and happy to explore the city.
Once through the very tough customs with dogs and big machines to scan / x-ray all of my luggage to keep me from entering the country with plants, vegetables or any other living thing that might spread, I found Carlos, my friend and first term team mate from IE waiting for me.
We drove towards the city, which is built into a dent with the Andes in the back, and I swear it could have been Switzerland. The swiss impression of the country only changed when we passed the poorer parts of Santiago, but soon we were in the middle of a buzzing, very clean, and very modern city. I must admit: I loved the city from the very first moment on, even though it was cold (Goiania: 28°C, Santiago: 6°C) and rainy.

Carlos’ wife Consuelo was waiting for us at home and as soon as I had gotten rid of my luggage and unpacked my warm coat and scarf, we went to take a stroll through downtown. I just liked the city more and more. One can easily see that Chile is the most westernized country of South America and the clean little parks and spots to sit, the open cafés and the well maintained houses seem to have everything that Brasil is working on, yet still lacks.
We had a coffe in the main square and took a look at a little exhibition about Rapa Nui (Easter Islands) which lie far off the Chilean Coast, closer to Tahiti in fact than to the country they “belong” to.

As it was time for lunch, we went to a nice restaurant at the border of a big park and had amazing seafood for starters, together with fresh bread and a spicy type of tomato relish which Consuelo and I loved. Then I had something “typical Chilean”, a type of meat with a lot of sauce and spicy mashed potatoes. Technically, this could have also come from the “Schwabenländle” in south Germany, where they love mashed potatoes and everything as to swim in a nice meat sauce. I loved it. (yes yes, I keep repeating my love for Chile, but what shall I do, I am supposed to tell the truth here…)
On the way out Franziska reached me. Her and Alastair had taken a later plane and had now arrived in Santiago as well. We decided we would meet later at night for drinks, as I was invited to watch soccer and have some snacks together with Carlos’ family at his parents house.
Before we could think about more to eat though, we first had to walk off all the things we had just indulged ourselves with.
We took a route into the park and up the mountain until we reached a platform from where one could watch all over Santiago. The city was hid in a mix of clouds and smog, yet it was great to see how it was huddled against the mountains in the back.
A little higher up one had an even better view and could climb up to the statue that you can see on the pictures. It watched over Santiago, a little like the Jesus Statue watches over Rio de Janeiro. However it is a little smaller.

I was tired as hell when we reached Carlos’ and Consuelo’s home again, and so I took a little two hour nap before we left to watch the soccer game. Apparently my four hours of sleep on the plane weren’t as relaxing and deep as it had seemed…

We watched the soccer game at Carols’ family’s house and his mom had prepared all kinds of little tapas for us to eat. It was very yummy and even though I have no clue about soccer, I enjoyed it very much.
After the game, we went together with Carlos’ sister and her boyfriend to a nice area with bars where Franziska and Alastair were already waiting for us. We had a couple of beers and a nice chat.