City Living: Santiago and Mendoza

Our bus ride from San Pedro to Santiago was--at 23.5 hours--the longest bus ride of our trip and our lives. It's funny how something like that toughens you up a bit. Bus rides of 12 hours seem like nothing after that. And it's funny also how you come up with little tricks and strategies to most successfully pass the time. For example, my ipod works for probably 7 or 8 hours. I had to save my music for the moments of greatest need. To other ladies with small bladders, you can relate to my strategic plan of water intake.

Arriving in Santiago was one of the coolest moments of our trip. I think we just felt completely at home in the city. It just felt good. It was the first place on our trip where we felt like, "Yeah, we could live here." Not only does it have the density, public transportation, and diversity that big cities should offer, it also has a sweeeeet amount of green space. I was pleasantly surprised by how many parks there were, spread all around the city. There were trees everywhere. It was so cool to have that along with the hustle and bustle of big city life. And public art like this:

Huge sidewalks and lots of pedestrians:

Santiago was the first place since Houston, in July, where we could do the following things:
1. throw toilet paper in the toilet (instead of a bin)
2. drink tap water
3. eat fresh vegetables (including lettuce!) without having to worry about our stomachs the next day

Unfortunately, it was also the most expensive place we'd been to yet. We stayed at a really awesome hostel that was in Barrio Brasil (not in the center), so it was on the cheaper side. Still, even sleeping in an 8-person dorm there, the price of one dormitorio bed was close to the price we'd been paying for private double rooms! And food...it's really hard to pay 9 USD for a sandwich. But I guess we can look at it as our contribution to Chile's economy, which is obviously moving up in the world. And it was neat to see that. The city was very clean. Drivers were respectful. The language, however, was practically impossible to understand. This made for many a joke. People would tell us or ask us something, and we'd just nod and say "esta bien" or "si, si." Then one of us would inevitably ask the other, "What did he say?" Which was followed by, "I have no idea."

Prices were high and the Spanish was fast and crazy, but we loved Santiago. So....what did we do in that wonderful city? Our first night, we met up with Meredith (Ryan's friend since middle school). Hers was the first familiar face we'd seen since Pat's in Guatemala, in August. Meredith has been living in Santiago for a couple years, teaching English. We saw her apartment in Providencia, and went out later to Bellavista, where we met her boyfriend, Federson.

Meredith and Federson, Calle Pio Nono

We drank Chilean beer on the crazy popular street (Calle Pio Nono) where everyone goes out drinking and practically has to fight for sidewalk tables. We talked about being away from the States for a long time, something Meredith has experienced for much longer than we have. And we talked about Haiti, which is where Federson is from. We talked about teaching English as a second language, and how it differs from teaching in the U.S. It was a great first night in Santiago.

Our day time hours were spent walking around exploring the city. We discovered that we really liked our neighborhood, even though it didn't have any special touristy spots. It just felt really good there. All weekend long, in the park a couple blocks from our hostel, there was a comics festival going on with music and cartoonists, etc. We could also walk to a movie theater, which we did, twice. We saw The Town and The Social Network, and really enjoyed both films! I guess we were enjoying just feeling like residents of the city.

One day we went out on Lonely Planet's suggested walking tour of the city, and it was really lovely: lots of parks, old buildings, neighborhoods with different characteristics. The highlight was definitely Cerra Santa Lucia, which is a gorgeous park right in the middle of the city. There's a path that circles round and round the hill, and then several series of stairs. The whole climb is maybe half an hour or so, and the whole time you just can't believe you're in such a beautiful natural place right there in the city! It's kind of like the feeling in New York when you get a little lost in Central Park and the city feels so far away.

The entrance to Cerra Santa Lucia

The view from the top was awesome!

We planned to leave Santiago after three days, but when we went to the bus terminal, we learned that the border was closed. There was unusually bad weather for this time of year, and it wasn't safe to cross the pass through the Andes. So, we hung around Santiago for one extra night and made our way eastward the next day to the country we had been waiting for since we first started planning this trip: Argentina!

Leaving Santiago, heading east toward the Andes:

Once we reached the mountains, we were surrounded by snow and it felt like we'd entered a winter wonderland. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful up there, so otherworldly. The mountains take over. You cannot escape them...so you slowly, slowly weave your way through. There were hundreds of trucks and buses in front of us, all of us making our way to the border at snail pace.

Slowly climbing up the Andes:

I don't know if the craziness at the border was due to the fact that it had been closed the previous day, so border traffic was doubled, or if the border is always crazy. Well, we got stuck at the border for hours. It wasn't even clear what was taking so long. There was just a long, long line that wasn't moving. Eventually, we officially entered the country.

Argentina!

Mendoza is the heart of Argentina wine country, and it is a really special place. I am not exaggerating when I say that the differences between the culture in Mendoza and the culture just across the border are instantly noticeable. First of all, there's the Spanish. We could suddenly understand what people were saying! Along with that, there just seems to be a different approach to life. Mendoza is all about living and loving. The city is even greener than Santiago. Streets are lined with gigantic trees. There are parks and plazas everywhere, with lots of fountains. Everyone seems to be outside, breathing in the fresh air.

Plaza Independencia

We stayed in kind of a crappy hostel, but it didn't matter because the city was so alive and amazing. We followed the example set by the locals and filled our days with wine, coffee, walks, breaks in the plazas. The only thing missing was our friends. We watched friends meet up at cafes and talk for hours and we talked a lot about everyone we miss back home. It would be so awesome to travel to Mendoza with a bunch of friends. Days of Mendoza life-loving living!

Consuming the local product:

Peaceful lake at Parque San Martin

After spending the mornings enjoying the extensive, peaceful parks, we'd make our way to one of the many streets lined with sidewalk cafes. The cafe culture is huge in Mendoza. I loved sitting and watching all the interactions around me. Business partners meeting over coffee. Moms with young children sharing croissants. Elderly ladies with their little coffees and sandwiches. I loved how the notion of sitting inside for a meal or a coffee was ridiculous. There was no reason to be inside when the weather was perfect and the air was alive with movement and something else I can't describe outside.

Sidewalk cafes:

Hours of our afternoons spent like this:

Our introduction to Argentina was awesome, and we were ready for Buenos Aires!